A new governance covenant, informed by sustainability’s principles and practices, must be more relevant to the unprecedented challenges we face on campus, in companies, in non-profits—and on the planet.
By Dave Newport
We don’t live in a dictatorship, says WorldBlu Founder Traci Fenton, so why must we work under one in our jobs?
Fenton is one of the headliners of an emerging reformation of organizational leadership and management built on advanced principles of shared governance and sustainability. Her remark may be simplistic, but it opens up a conversation worth having about how to govern organizations for sustainability.
Radical “new” ideas like democracy, transparency, decentralized power, dialogue & listening, fairness & dignity and accountability are among the tenets of workplace democracy being embraced by brands like New Belgium Brewing, WD-40, Zappos, and Patagonia; and NGOs like Beyond Borders, Haiti Partners, and Taking It Global. These “new” concepts work in public, private, non-profit, and educational institutions alike.
Indeed, as sustainability continues to mature as an organizational doctrine, many have begun to question how companies, campuses, and even NGOs can be fully sustainable while still locked in a vertical, command and control governance paradigm that may inadvertently disenfranchise staff and limit other stakeholders’ contributions to mission.
Read more https://davenewportblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-future-of-sustainability-ethical.html