Sustainability Change Management Through “The Wheel of Change Toward Sustainability”©

Most organizations and public institutions in western societies employ linear “take-make-waste” production models. Mechanical, fragmented organizational designs are used to control the straight-line economic system. Too often, however, this so-called “cradle-to-grave” production model leads to socio-economic crisis, financial losses, environmental harm, and consumer or civic backlash. Sustainable development seeks to fundamentally transform the linear economic paradigm into one that is circular, and thus benign and restorative in nature. The new approach has been called a “cradle to cradle” production model. Organizations seeking to avoid crisis and attain socio-economic and environmental sustainability must build a culture that embraces the circular economic model. Based on extensive research and testing, The Wheel of Change Toward Sustainability is FACTOR 10 Inc.’s strategy for transforming organizational culture.

Sustainable Governance Protocols ©

To overcome resistance and spur cultural transformation, sustainability change leaders must find the key leverage points. These are points in a system where a small shift in one thing will eventually generate big changes in everything else. Our research and experience suggests that changes in organizational governance often provide the greatest overall leverage for transformation toward sustainability.

Governance systems are three-legged stools that shape the way information is gathered and shared, decisions are made and enforced, and resources and wealth are distributed. These factors shape the way people perceive the world around them, the way they are motivated, and their power and authority. They are the drive shaft and steering mechanisms of an organization or community.

Because organizations are social systems, each of the three factors of governance influences the others. For example, the information an individual or group has access to shapes their ability to make informed decisions. The roles and responsibilities people have in decision-making influences the type of information they desire and the way resources may be allocated. The way that resources and wealth are distributed often determines the levels of commitment people have to the organization and affects the type of information they want and role they are willing to play in decision-making. In short, each factor influences how power and authority are distributed within an organization.

We help our clients assess the constraints of their existing governance systems and develop information, decision-making, accountability, and resource distribution systems that generate commitment and loyalty among employees and stakeholders. These tools provide the mechanisms needed to foster increased competitive advantage with significantly reduced socio-economic and environmental risks.

Next Generation Leadership©

Transforming a mechanistic organization into one that is systems-based and the successful introduction of sustainable governance protocols require exemplary leadership. It has often been said that management is about doing things right while leadership is about doing the right thing. Leadership for sustainability requires a different set of skills from the traditional patriarchic approach to leadership employed within most organizations today. FACTOR 10 Inc.’s Next Generation Leadership system helps senior executives and junior staff develop the understandings and skills needed to lead change toward sustainability.

FACTOR 10 Inc.’s Next Generation Leadership program is a structured leadership development system that helps senior executives and junior staff develop the understandings and skills needed to lead organizational change toward sustainability. The system includes formal training, 360-degree feedback, and exposure to the leadership approaches used by leading executives in similar sectors.

Our Next Generation Leadership system begins with a diagnostic step in which the business drivers and reasons for establishing a susatainability leaderhsip system are identified. Based on the assessment, a program is designed specifically tailored to the needs and desires of the organization. Classroom sessions are coupled with action learning systems that tackle significant existing and potential organizational challenges is a core element of each program. On-the-job reinforcement and support is then provided to ensure that the classroom trainings are generalized and transferred to the job. Finally, an evaluation provides the capstone for the program—the point at which the organization can gain insight on leadership strenghts and weaknesses and how to revise and improve the program, eliminate barriers to application, and connect the new understandings and skills to the original program goals to measure success.

ALONE OR IN PARTNERSHIP WITH OTHER LEADING SPECIALISTS, FACTOR 10 INC OFFERS THESE ADDITIONAL SERVICES:

“Closed-Loop” Designs and Implementation

FACTOR 10 Inc. assists public and private entities to develop circular “closed-loop” design protocols and processes for processes, products, and services. These designs provide the basis to continually recirculate industrial byproducts, end-of-life products, and spent substances (materials we currently consider waste) within either technical cycles for use by industry or biological cycles where they are reintegrated into nature with no harm to the environment. In addition, we construct waste utilization networks of cooperative organizations along technology or product lines and develop product-chain plans and agreements for waste cycling systems.

Sustainability Audits, Assessments, and Indicator Development

FACTOR 10 Inc. assists public and private entities to develop baseline data regarding their existing operational and governance systems through the application of specially tailored sustainability auditing and input-output assessment protocols. We also work with our clients to develop effective indicators and measurement systems that provide credible and timely data on progress toward desired goals. These tools can provide leaders with the information needed to understand, prioritize, measure, and guide action toward sustainability.

Sustainable Business and Jobs Development Strategies

FACTOR 10 Inc. assists state and local governments and economic development agencies in designing and implementing initiatives to expand existing sustainable industrial, service and technology sectors or incubate and grow new ones. By understanding the size, strengths, weaknesses, and needs of existing sustainable sectors and utilizing cluster analysis strategies, we design and help institute strategies to increase economic competitiveness and create jobs with significantly less input of toxic materials and energy and less waste, pollution and habitat impacts generated per unit of product, service, or GDP.

Ecosystem-Based Water Quality, Fisheries and Watershed Management Programs

FACTOR 10 Inc. assists public and private entities involved with water quality, fisheries and watershed resource issues in designing sustainable ecosystem-based management and restoration programs. Federal and state water and watershed restoration efforts, often mandated by the Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act, as well as public demand for clean water and sustainable fisheries, increasingly pressure business, government, and communities to improve their management of aquatic resources.

We help clients diagnose existing programs and design scientifically sound community-based, sustainable water quality, fisheries and watershed management and restoration programs. We also help government and communities design efficient and effective interagency and transboundary watershed governance structures.

Strategic Environmental Counseling and Green Certification

From ISO 14000 and the European Union’s EMAS program, to agricultural, forest and other certification programs, the “sustainable certification” movement is growing across the globe. Certification can be viewed as a form of privatized regulatory oversight. We help clients assess their current production and organizational schemes and prepare for product or process certification. We provide tools to track and forecast future environmental trends and market opportunities including "Green- Labeling" and product certification programs. We also develop programs capable of obtaining ISO 14000, EMAS, agricultural, forest and other forms of third-party certification.

Administrative Support For Sustainable Development and Watershed Programs

We offer specialized administrative support for targeted sustainable development and watershed management programs. Our services include accounting, cost management, budgeting, fundraising assistance, technical support, and project management.