Editor's view, Inside Track, February 2011
Eating the elephant: tackling the really difficult issues
As business and economic interests increasingly seem to run against a tide of social, ethical and environmental pressures, tackling the really big issues that affect us all gets even harder. Issues such as sustainability, reducing waste, cutting carbon emissions or safety often get put in the ‘too hard to do’ box when you realise that it will involve herculean efforts to persuade and influence not only your employees, but also your stakeholders and partners in the supply chain that it is the right thing to do – not just for social benefit but for economic growth too .
Worthy visions such as zero waste or zero infections may express the aspiration and capture the imagination, but the reality is that these are elephant-sized tasks that only the brave (or mad) will take on as a serious and achievable goals. One such person was the group MD at Balfour Beatty, the leading infrastructure and services business. The team at Stanton Marris have been privileged to work alongside him and his fellow leaders as they set themselves the ambitious safety goal of achieving Zero Harm by 2012.
Our experience taught us there are some key lessons that brave leaders need to know before embarking on their own elephant-sized issues:
- Think big and bold when facing the really difficult issues – believe you can do it
- ‘Let go’ and involve wider groups of people both inside and beyond the organisation to tackle what would otherwise be impossible to do alone
- Challenge the received wisdom or ‘constructs’ – you need to break lifelong habits to make lasting change
- Transform the impact of major change through a fresh approach to ‘brand’ and messaging to signal that it is something different.
If you would like to learn more lessons from the Balfour Beatty story so far, please request a copy of ‘Eating the Elephant: how do tackle the really difficult issues?’ as either a print or PDF copy by clicking here.
