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[email protected]@gmail.com

Tension and Change

Vision Tension

• The core emotional burden of facing the facts

Earth Systems

Ecosystems and SpeciesExtinction &toxicity

Climate systems Disturbance

Atmospheric systems Ozone depletion, pollution

Oceanic systems Disturbance to sea levels,

temperatures and currents, sea life depletion

Geological and Soil systems Desertification, land pollution, mineral & resource depletion,

depletion of soil quality, toxicity

Hydrological systems Water pollution & scarcity

Nutrient systems Disturbance of nutrient flows,

toxicity

Vision Tension

• The core emotional burden of facing the facts• The internal tension of having a larger vision

that exists in stark contrast to reality

Therefore our organizations must develop a greater capacity for change and the related processes of continuous improvement and

organizational transformation.

The global environmental imperative requires us to change the way in which we do almost everything. The end goal, environmental sustainability, is a moving target.

What is the Unique Leadership Challenge Posed by The

Environmental Imperative?

Philosophically speaking our core shift is to attend to what is between. To attend to the context in which individual elements interact. To tap the power of the generative capacity in the relationship between individual elements.

To assume that the individual element is not fixed in its capacity or fully known in isolation. To embrace the emergent source that exists between individual elements and between systems.

As a profession we are perhaps being called upon to midwife an awakening of the power and possibility that lies between all the people and processes that we have heretofore structured into isolation and fragmentation in the mistaken pursuit of mastery over.

Perhaps a large part of our destiny is to help ourselves and others to grow back into the humbling life of ‘relationship with’ in place of ‘mastery over’. There is a joy in this reunion, some part of us hungers for it – we have this going for us right from the beginning.

Vision Tension

• The core emotional burden of facing the facts• The internal tension of having a larger vision

that exists in stark contrast to reality• The internal tension of framing vision into

components and selling points without losing the bigger and deeper vision

Conceptual and stylised representation of waves of innovationSource: TNEP (2005)

Market Innovation (Technology, Products & Services)

Climate ActionGreenhouse Gas Emissions Targets (20 states)Emissions Caps for Electricity (16 states)Climate Action Plans (36 states)Active Climate Legislative Commissions and Executive Branch Advisory Groups (23 states)Regional Initiatives (32 states)GHG Reporting and Registries (41 states)

Transportation SectorVehicle GHG Emissions Standards (17 states)Mandates and Incentives Promoting Biofuels (39 states)VMT-Related Policies and IncentivesLow Carbon Fuel StandardMedium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicle PoliciesPlug-in Electric Vehicles

Energy SectorPublic Benefit Funds (20 states)Renewable & Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards (33 states)Net Metering Programs (52 states)Green Pricing Programs (12 states)Energy Efficiency Resource Standards (21 states)Financial Incentives for Carbon Capture & Storage (16 states)

Building SectorResidential Building Energy Codes (38 states)Commercial Building Energy Codes (37 states)Green Building Standards for State Buildings (29 states)Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Programs….?

Policy and Regulation (State, Local and Institutional)

Green Jobs (Re-training existing, creating new green jobs)

State Green Jobs as % of all Private and

Public Sector Employment

California 3.4%

Northern California 8.1%

Oregon (Private only) 3.0%

Michigan 3.0%

Washington State 3.3%

Over time we have removed our senses further and further from the natural world. As we have left our sensual connection to the natural world, as individuals,

communities and society – we have cut ourselves adrift from any feedback as to the effects of our choices.

We have fallen out of relationship with the natural world and as a result almost every natural life support system is now in decline.

Our core journey is a journey back into relationship with our living planet, with each other and with ourselves.

What is our “True North”, the direction in which we can keep resetting our compass as we travail the disorienting landscape

along the path of change?

Tensions of Working in Complex Systems

• The scale of the task ahead, the enormous complexity of our organizations/communities and the relative lack of formal power and resourcing we have



• The emerging identity of our profession, the expectations of others



• The emerging identity of our profession, the expectations of others

• Orienting ourselves to a diverse and ever changing array of personalities, agendas, power dynamics

Seeing Our Role More Clearly

• There is a degree of ongoing disorientation, feeling torn, feeling unclear about where the leverage is and generally feeling overwhelmed

• Can we start developing more mental models (and continuously improving these) that will give us a greater conscious grasp of the landscape up front?

Earth Systems










toxicity

Earth Systems

Infrastructure Systems










toxicity

Energy supply & distribution

Material supply & disposal

Food Supply

Water supply & disposal

Building construction

Building operations

Transportation

Landscaping

Earth Systems


Organizational Systems










toxicity



Food Supply



Building operations

Transportation

Landscaping

Leadership

Culture

Finance & Accounting

Management Structures

Policy Instruments

Information Systems

Procurement systems

Decision Making Processes

Human resources

Planning Processes

Regulatory, Market,& Community Context

Earth Systems



Individual System










toxicity



Food Supply



Building operations

Transportation

Landscaping

Leadership

Culture



Policy Instruments

Information Systems

Procurement systems


Human resources

Planning Processes


Values

Spirituality/Meaning

Family

Financial Goals

Culture/Community

Social Connections

Status

Occupation

Skills/Abilities

Health

Earth Systems



Individual System










toxicity



Food Supply



Building operations

Transportation

Landscaping

Leadership

Culture



Policy Instruments

Information Systems

Procurement systems


Human resources

Planning Processes


Values


Family

Financial Goals

Culture/Community

Social Connections

Status

Occupation

Skills/Abilities

Health

A lot of tension emerges from the

interdependence of these spheres

Our organizations are limited in their capacity for rationality but they do still have patterns, rules and incentives that can

be understood.

We Need to Make Change Easier: We Need to Know How our Organizations Really Work

In large organizations most daily operations have become a habit, no longer done with awareness, no longer examined for the true

costs/benefit.

This is why READY, FIRE, AIM can be the right sequence in the early

stages of catalyzing change.

5% of what the individual does is consciously processed

We Need to Make Change Easier: Like our own minds our organizations are largely unconscious. They will are revealed to us

largely through the change process.

Tensions of Discovering How our Organizations Really Work

• Dealing with the Image of Rationality, Hierarchy and Linear Decision-Making and the reality of how our organizations actually work

• Recovering from the blame that is coming your way.• Walking the line between being honest, transparent

and principled – and doing what you need to do to get progress and break through hierarchical gridlock (or other institutional barriers).

Interdependence between: Professional, departments, groups & organizations Capital, Finance & Accounting Leadership Technology, products & Services Information Capacity Building/Education Values and Culture Policy and more….

The Great Challenge for ahead will be Navigating Interdependence in a Fragmented Organization &

Society

Full Process = 3 months of constant facilitation by change managers

Vendor

Sales RepTechnician

School

Finance Mgr (capital budget)Finance Mgr (operating budget)

Facility DirectorBuilding Manager (Superintendent)

House Master

House occupants (students)REP coordinator (student)

Maintenance crew

Univ. Ops

12

3

4

5

67

8

910

1112

13

14

15

16

1718

19

20

Simple Light Bulb Changing Project at Harvard University

Green Campus

Loan FundMy staff

Barriers: Time + Capital + Policy + Training/Education + Values + Service/product

Interdependence Case Study: Changing Light bulbs at Harvard

Rate of Growth re: Number of Green Building Projects on Harvard Campus

Extensive Change Management Process Used to Foster Organizational Conditions Necessary for Wide Scale Engagement, Innovation, Learning,

Leadership and Commitment

Interdependence Case Study: Green Buildings at Harvard

Engage Executive Leaders to Formalize Commitment

Streamlining and Reforming processes

Engage & Develop Capacities

Address Finance & Accounting Issues

Change Attitudes

Pilot Projects & Expand

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2011

5 12 163 4 50+ 23

5 12 163 4 50+ 23 80+

28

Letting go of Control and Taking up the Role of Midwife

Most people believe that humans are innately averse to change. This is not true.

A more accurate assessment is that people have an aversion to instability and risk and they assume that change equals instability and risk.

People are actually invigorated by change when it occurs with adequate stability and low risk.

The most common source of unanticipated instability/risk is the failure to

address interdependence. In other words ignoring the system and focusing only on certain parts.

We Need to Make Change Easier

http://web.mit.edu/press/2010/collective-intel.html

“When it comes to intelligence, the whole can indeed be greater than the sum of its parts. A new study co-authored by MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and Union College researchers documents the existence of collective intelligence among groups of people who cooperate well, showing that such intelligence extends beyond the cognitive abilities of the groups’ individual members….

They discovered that groups featuring the right kind of internal dynamics perform well on a wide range of assignments, a finding with potential applications for businesses & other organizations.”

Group Intelligence Will Matter More in the Green Economy Than Individual Intelligence

Awakening

Pioneering

Transformation

Change Management Progression for Organizations

Produced by Leith Sharp in collaboration with Julie Newman

Awakening

Defining Awakening

Awakening phase puts sustainability on the agenda for the organization.


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awakening

•This stage is about campus sustainability being moved onto the organization’s agenda but with a low level of understanding as to what it actually means or requires from the institution

•There are a small number of early champions pushing forward often in a voluntary capacity (not part of their real job)

•Some little victories help to break through the initial inertia with some early project and program successes and the numbers of people vocalizing support grows

•It might eventually produce enough commitment to fund a sustainability professional to help organize and coordinate efforts

Attributes of Awakening


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awakening

Transitioning Awakening

The organization is ready to move into the PIONEERING phase when a threshold of top level commitment, dedicated sustainability staff and engaged champions has been reached


Pioneering

awakening

Defining Pioneering

The Pioneering phase is when the institution is experiencing an acceleration of pilot projects and new initiatives . The institution is now working at the frontier, exploring how much change it can institute and how quickly. The work involves integrating sustainability into the small and large arena’s of organizational life. It is largely about improving procedures within the existing organizational framework.


awakening

attributes of

Pioneering•Proliferation of projects and programs across the campus

•Significant expansion of active engagement across the campus

•Development of new capacities, attitudinal shifts and confidence.

•The above three factors makes it possible to drive new formal commitments, goals, policies and standards which in turn accelerate engagement across the institution

•The sustainability staff are spending more time coordinating and supporting the leadership of others than advocating and cajoling.

•The sustainability related governance structure of the institution is further developed to formalize leadership and engagement in sustainability decision-making

•The organization is able to integrate a variety of new practices and procedures into existing organizational systems and structures. There is no real shift in power nor is there any process reform.


awakening

Transitioning

Pioneering

At a certain point the organization begins to reach a plateau whereby the capacity of the existing organizational systems and structures to integrate new practices is tapped out. Pressing for additional progress begins to reveal deeper institutional limitations, barriers and resistance.

At this stage we must positioning the organization to move into the TRANSFORMATION phase – by gaining enough formal power, leveraging leadership, fostering understanding of necessity for reform, building capacities to support the reform.


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awakening

Defining Transformation

An institution is in the Transformation stage of the cycle when sustainability

has become a central organizing principle that is leading to deep

organizational reforms.

The Pioneering stage was focused on integrating sustainability into the existing

power structures, decision making processes and organizational systems.

Transformation involves reforming these structures, processes and systems in

order to better enable sustainability to be achieved.



Attributes of an Organization in Transformation

Leadership Deep & visible sustainability commitment, values/preserves trust, drives collaboration as well as individual performance, leverages influence & authority from bottom-up, horizontal, top-down

Governance Distributed ownership and engagement, drives continuous improvement, enables systemic reform

Management Structures Cross-departmental permeability, interdisciplinary collaboration, bottom-up and horizontal interactivity

Finance and Accounting Financial drivers for innovation and systems efficiency, rewards performance, drives collaboration

Capacity Building Empowered workforce that is engaged in life long learning, broad engagement in implementation cycles for continuous testing and learning

Knowledge Effective prioritization, gathering and dissemination of knowledge

Sustainability Viewed as Requiring a Change Management Function

Change management team embedded with senior report and organization-wide connectivity with the capacity to undertake all core change management functions for sustainability

attributes of Transformation

Produced by Leith Sharp

Designer

Contractor

Supplier

Owner

www.aangepastbouwen.nl

www.hansa-klima.de

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Traditional Design

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Project

Team

Owner

Supplier Contractor

Designer

Integrated Design

Process Understand the TeamIntegrated Design Requires

an Integrated Team

What standard will we answer to as a new profession?

Is it enough to justify the existence of our profession?Is it enough to get our institutions into the latest top ‘green’ ratings?Is it enough to look good on our websites and to our students and alumni?

Just these battles are hard won, exhausting and humbling. To look beyond the relative comfort and rewards of these achievements will take something deep from within enough of us.

There may be just a window of time in which we build this depth into the foundation of our professional identity. We should ask ourselves these questions alone and together in the coming months/years.

Earth Systems



Individual System










toxicity



Food Supply



Building operations

Transportation

Landscaping

Leadership

Culture



Policy Instruments

Information Systems

Procurement systems


Human resources

Planning Processes


Values


Family

Financial Goals

Culture/Community

Social Connections

Status

Occupation

Skills/Abilities

Health

Examples of how the 3 systems are

interdependent?

Earth Systems



Individual System










toxicity

Provide information, examples and support

pilots of new technologies, practices

and products

Leverage peer to peer influence to prove

viability

Work to gain leadership Goals/Commitments

Sustainability Plan

Sustainability staff

Training existing staff

Social marketing and behavior change

Relationships

Empathic connection

Inclusion

Trust

Recognition

Peer to peer modeling

Ownership and shared determination

What are we already doing in these 3 system

spheres?

Earth Systems



Individual System

Ecosystems and Species

Climate systems

Atmospheric systems

Oceanic systems

Geological and Soil systems

Hydrological systems

Nutrient systems

What traits might emerge at a university/college in a

sustainable relationship with our living planet?

Weld Hill Research Center Seeking LEED Gold Closed loop geothermal system for heating and cooling, ventilation rates for lab space

designed to 6 air changes per hour with night time set-back

Department: Arnold Arboretum

Building Type: Labs and Offices

Size: 45,000 square feet

Challenging conventional approaches to air change rates in laboratories

Building Name Leverett Towers F & G

Department Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Description Complex of 2 11-story towers

Age Built 1959; renovations every 4 years

Size 121,697 square feet

Occupancy 158 suites, 20 tutor apartments; 300 residents

Demographics Undergraduates, graduate tutors

Lease format Academic year appointments; temporary summer housing

Building systems and utilities

Heat/ventilation: Steam to forced air and radiant heat; Hot water: steamAir conditioning: window unitsElectricity: tutor kitchenette appliancesNatural gas: dryers (1990-2001 only)

2006 GHG emissions

1537 MTCDE

Integration Design and Systems Thinking Can Help Us Solve the Big Problems

Cost Neutral Climate Neutral Building Case Study

Leverett Towers Investment Summary

Component

% of Energy

PortfolioInvestment Period MTCDE/yr

Energy Conservation Measures 17% 2007-2009 255

Renewable Energy Technology (onsite) 3% 2007-2009 49

Fuel Switch 22% 2012-2020 345

Offsets 58% 2012-2020 888

Behavior Program ((2%)) 2007-2020 ((33))

Integration Design and Systems Thinking Can Help Us Solve the Big Problems

51

Leverett Tow ers:Climate Neutral Portfolio at 2020

17%

3%

22%58%

ECMs

RETs

Fuel Sw itch

Offsets

Leverette Towers Financial Summary for Climate Neutrality

Financial CategoryNet present value

through 2020

Investments (Energy Conservation Measures, Onsite Renewable Energy, Fuel Switching, Behavior change)

($1,068,958)

Savings (Energy Conservation Measures, Fuel Switching, Behavior change) $1,142,947

Carbon Offset Purchases ($68,268)

TOTAL PROGRAM Net Present Value (12yr timeframe) $5,721

Cost Neutral Climate Neutral Building Case Study(Research provided by 2008 thesis student Debra Shepard)

www.eere.energy.gov

Business Modeling for Cost Neutral Climate Neutrality

http://www.eere.energy.gov/




Capital Budget Managers

Maintenance Budget Managers

Utility Budget Managers

Human Resources Managers

Barrier: Accounting structures are driving inefficient design and operations by limiting

the appropriate movement of

investments and savings

Green Campus Loan Fund:

$12 million interest-free capital for conservation projects

Existing Buildings New Construction

Full capital cost covered

5 year payback maximum

Simple payback used

Cost delta funded

10 year payback maximum

Lifecycle costing used

$14.5+ million lent since 2001

180+ projects

27+% average return on investment

Harvard’s Green Campus Initiative 2000 Onwards

Green Campus Loan Fund

Capital Budget Managers

Maintenance Budget Managers

Utility Budget Managers

Human Resources Managers

Common Practices:

1.No capital budget consideration of operating costs implications and

opportunities

2.No efficiency funding in annual maintenance/operating budgets

3.No way to return savings to the people that achieve them

4.Reduced annual operating budgets when energy costs reduced

5.No funding for piloting and testing new practices

A finance and accounting context that would energize green economic growth…..

Provide champions with timely access to funds for good paybacks

Allow for savings to be captured and reinvested

Share savings with the people making it possible

Provide seed funds for pilot projects

Consider the costs over the life of the project not just first cost

Savings exist within whole systems not just the parts

Transformation is about context


I am fully engaged in working on my part of the solution in

every way possible!

Stable experiences of innovation and success

Context of institutional commitment and management support

Peer to peer interactions

Rewards, incentives and recognition

Removal of barriers and disincentives

Proper inclusion in decision-making processes

Ongoing training and opportunities to learn

Access to expertise

An organizational context to empower the full potential of people as change agents…………

Transformation is about context


Earth Systems


Organizational Systems Individual System

Scienctific, technical

knowledge

Picking the right focus

Engaging them in processes like AI and other democratizing

processes to gather input

Setting goals

Cost benefit analysis

Sales and communications

Research – market innovations

Benchmarking

Experimentation/piloting

Project management

Peer to peer

core relationship building (building trust and mutual

understanding, conflict mediation, having difficult

conversations)

Finding early champions, and determining who to focus your

relationship building on (and who to leave until later)

Learning a inventory of techniques for getting the middle majority to give

attention and become engaged/empowered

Creating some early victories,

Getting symbolic leadership signal of support and evolving that to fully

engaged executive leadership

Learn about the cultures (student, admin, faculty, other sub groupings)

Identify the influential people and build alliances.

Knowing your policy and regulatory environment and leveraging this to your

advantage

Campus sustainability planning process

Social marketing and behavior change programs

Active listening skills

Social technologies

Establishing mutual empathetic connections

How to maintain respect in the face of difference,

resistance

Understanding personalities

Authentic presence

Sustaining good will, trust

Appreciation and acknowledgement

Acknowledging our own biases/traits/strengths and

weaknesses

Earth Systems

Infrastructure Systems Organizational Systems Individual System

Scientific, technical

knowledge

Understanding what their job is

And acknowledge what they have done already and defusing tendency of feeling that we are

trying to tell them how to do their job

Tracking, metric, evaluation

Celebrating, giving credit

Elevating, giving a platform

Getting a seat at the table

Leverage points and organizational analysis, systems analysis, relationship and power

mapping

Great meeting planning/ management/facilitation

Social technology for engagement

Organization development & learning theory

Understanding org charts, informal power, who the listens to who, where are the

alliances – learning to conduct the voices

Learn about successful programs/a vocabulary of successful programs and

projects: eco rep programs, green office programs, green building programs, green

cleaning program

Learning how to manage student volunteers, staff etc

Leveraging student power/minimizing student risk

Leveraging faculty power and minimizing faculty risk

Learning from existing leadership development resources/programs

Understand the emerging executive leadership roles/demands/needs

Knowing thyself, manage thyself and continuously learn!

Defining some of the abstract words (what

is leadership?)

Modes for Professional Development (how can we access this)

ModesBetter promotion existing courses/resources (Harvard extension school – shorten if possible)Regional sustainability professional development workshopsFormal mentorship and/or buddy system programs/systemsIntensive workshops for targeted dilemmas (small groups, intensive, long)Webinars – practitioners sharing best practices, perhaps organized by institutional types, different regionsCore insights, frameworksPractice learning opportunitiesVisiting scholars program – we go for a term to work on other campusesEngaging other experts from other professional arenas/tiers to help train us

Characteristics:2-3 hours/wk – up to 10 weeks$500ishTravel – keep to minimumUnderstanding that face to face is a foundation for online/virtual County/regional wide – build regional networks/relationships. Campus based 1-1.5 daysWe need to develop an easy way to host regional meetings – recipe/resource/expertise (could use dilemmas from

host institution)

[email protected] [email protected] tension and change

Documents

states property

states mandates

change slide

toxicity slide

reality slide

institutional slide

deeper vision slide

states emissions caps