As organizational leaders, we can be skillful, useful, and responsible.  And, that is good, that is what our organizations need us to be as leaders.  We also know what we need to do: Direct, generate, and adapt effective and positive forward movement by putting conditions for success in place – skillfully, usefully, and responsibly.

Once we have effective and positive movement going, how do we sustain it?  How do we sustain that forward movement we worked so hard to generate and adapt?  Too often our leadership knowledge focuses our attention on acting, on what we do as individuals.  Less often does our leadership knowledge help us learn how to sustain that action, that movement.   To be effective, to be positive as a leader, we must sustain our ability to be the leader our organizations need us to be.

For complex organizations and their members, then, sustainability has two elements.  First, the sustainability of that effective, positive forward movement for the organization.  Then second, the ability of the organization’s leaders to sustain their own skillful, useful, and responsible leadership practice.

-Dr. James R. Barker-

Dr. Linda Macdonald’s open education resource book, Building Relationships with Business Communication, which was referenced above for Land Acknowledgements, serves as a very useful resource for crafting persuasive communication for enhanced inclusivity.  You can access the full book at this link:

Building Relationships With Business Communication

Strategy + Business recently published a web article on the move away from the compliance focus of corporate sustainability:

Strategy + Business: Making ESG a strategic asset

Besides the McKinsey article on Triple Bottom Line referenced above, McKinsey has recently published several articles on the resurgence of sustainability and the Triple Bottom Line as a viable business strategy.  Here are links to their current articles most applicable to our discussion of strategic forward movement.

• Emphasizing the S in ESG, How PayPal has made a societal impact and purpose the guiding lights of its strategy.
• Ron O’Hanley of State Street on corporate resilience and ESG – The CEO of the US financial giant reflects on the lessons about managing environmental, social, and governance risks that the pandemic delivered to global business
• Why ESG is here to stay – The growing evidence that sustainable corporate practices link closely to performance is focusing investor and acquirer attention on ESG scores. But how reliable are they?
• Five ways that ESG creates value – Getting your environmental, social, and governance (ESG) proposition right links to higher value creation. Here’s why
• Living my purpose at McKinsey, one ESG project at a time Since she was young, Donatela has dreamed of having a positive impact on the environment and society and she is now living that dream as a solutions manager in McKinsey’s ESG Insights team.
• How the E in ESG creates business value – For executives and investors alike, understanding the links between ESG and business value is essential to making sound decisions about how to allocate capital and other resources.
• Our future lives and livelihoods: Sustainable and inclusive and growing: Making the shift to sustainable and inclusive growth Explore insights on the new era of growth—one that doesn’t treat growth and positive impact as opposing forces.

If you want to pursue the sustainability work of Karl-Henrik Robèrt, here is a link to one of his most widely read and celebrated papers: 

 Karl-Henrik Robèrt: A Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development

 Another renown figure in sustainability is Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman, Interface, Inc., who is generally regarded as the champion of business sustainability.  Learn more about Anderson from his Ted Talk:

You can explore Laurie Lewis’ development of Activity Tracks in her book:

Lewis, L. K. (2019).  Organizational Change:  Creating Change through Strategic Communication. 2nd Edition. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. 

McKinsey also regularly publishes work on issues related to the present movement for enhanced inclusivity in the work, which supports the long-term sustainability of an organization.  Here is one example covering the incorporation of LGBTQ+ voices in the sense making and practices of the organization:

 McKinsey: LGBTQ+ voices: Learning from lived experiences

When we use the term ‘learning organization,’ we often mean the ability to sustain movement by learning from our experiences and to adapt our organization to learn better from experience.  This article provides a useful overview of learning organizations that complements our discussion of sustaining forward movement.

Strategy + Business:  Building a culture of learning at work / How leaders can create the psychological safety for people to constantly rethink what’s possible.

Part II

A powerful force affecting our own ability to sustain our leadership capacity and capability concerns how we  cope with the stress that arises from our work.  Here are three useful resources on key factors that shape our sustainability; burnout, expressions of emotions at work, and work life balance, which are also concepts with growing resource literatures:

McKinsey: Author Talks: Where are the women who are missing from the workforce?

The Atlantic: The Emotion Missing From the Workplace;

Ted Talks: Patty McCord on four lessons the pandemic taught 

We can find ready examples of executives who model the need to take vacation time and disconnect from work:

Forbes: Why Is This CEO Going Out Of His Way To Personally Encourage Employees To Take A Vacation?  

Harvard Business Review:  The CEO of Kronos on Launching an Unlimited Vacation Policy 

As noted in the course, I am indebted to Jim Parco, my former work colleague and long time friend, for gifting me permission to use the language “think deeply, think differently” and “be the leader your organization needs you to be.”  You can find out more about Jim, his current work, and his perspective on leadership at these links:

Jim Parco | LinkedIn

 Jim Parco | Facebook

Jim Parco | Wikipedia

Lycoming College – Jim Parco