How to develop a positive-impact organization?

If you are discouraged by the poly-crisis in the world, consider improving your organization’s positive impact. Or start a company! A positive organization with a positive culture, leadership, and strategy that makes a measurable positive impact. With that, both the organization and the customers flourish. On to more applicants, better performance, happy customers, and solutions for the world. How can your organization make a more positive impact? (This article is based on the Dutch book “Now What? - The Power of Inspiration and Purpose” by Ariane Roos and Joris van Zoelen.)

With our enormous prosperity, you almost forget what matters in life. In the Maslow pyramid of needs, we find the physical needs at the bottom. These are basic needs: clean drinking water, clean air, food, and shelter. These are followed by needs for security and safety, social contact, recognition, and self-fulfillment. We are so busy with economic growth that we fail to see that our basic needs come under pressure: through climate change, the loss of biodiversity, ocean pollution, polarization, exclusion, and exploitation, for example.

Poly-crisis

The earth is warming and this year it is 1.5 degrees warmer than before the industrial age. The sea is full of plastic soup, the air contains plastic particles, biodiversity has decreased by 70 percent and we have antibiotics in our water, making us vulnerable.
According to Soil Heroes, two billion square kilometers of our earth's surface is so depleted that no agriculture is possible. Almost all products contain petroleum derivatives or are transported with petroleum.

Also, there is slavery: forced labor under deplorable conditions for no or unregulated payment. The number of modern slaves grew to about 40 million by 2020, calculated Dick Harrison, professor of history at Lund University in Sweden.

The growing shortage of raw materials is leading to huge price increases. At some point, this will no longer be absorbed by loans and the printing of money. And even innovation will not be able to help enough to solve the essential problems. Richard Heinberg sees (in his book End to Growth) the solution in a focus on the welfare of all, rather than prosperity for a few. He also wants to transform into a sustainable society. He predicts that continuing on the same path will lead to a crisis that could be fundamentally disruptive to our world society.

Most markets are struggling: there is more supply than demand. Many are commodity markets with strong competitive pressures, diminishing distinctiveness among suppliers, and a strong focus on volume and pressure on price. In many of these markets, earning power falls below a healthy threshold. Industries where gross margins fall below 2 and sometimes even below 1.5 percent lose the ability to innovate and end up in a fighting market. As a result, we also exhaust people: many managers and employees work under stress and suffer burnout.

So we will have to do something anyway. Once you are aware of it, you are responsible for your actions and your inaction....

Fortunately, there are solutions and practical models, such as Kate Raworth's Donut Economy. That shows you can satisfy all basic human needs within the limits of the planet. There is still room for the (transformed) economy. But prepare for changes ahead…!

And now what?

If you feel despondent about the poly-crisis in the world, let’s look at the tips from Ariane Roos and Joris van Zoelen. They focus on “impact organizations”, that want to improve the world and fulfill real needs and solve problems. 
Every organization can be a “future-maker”, Roos and Van Zoelen argue. That's better than waiting for consumers and for the government to do something about ecological and social problems. Companies must and can contribute positively; in doing so, they can also make a profit. However, it is important that their services and products are as affordable as those of “ordinary” competitors.

Organizations with a positive impact also benefit themselves, according to research:
64% of job applicants check positive impact before applying for a job
89% of clients believe impact organizations deliver the highest quality results
42% better performance of purpose-driven organizations vs. “regular” organizations
2.25 times more productive are inspired employees (vs. just happy people)

So do you want to improve the world? Then start a company! Dopper, Patagonia, Seepje, Naïf, Tesla, and many other brands prove: that the “business case for good” is starting to work.

An impact company is: an organization that has the solving of a (large) social problem as its highest goal and knows how to turn that solution into a healthy business.

You can distinguish three levels of doing good:
 
Sustainable: This reduces the negative impact of the business.
For example, Heineken makes its own transport more sustainable, and Coca-Cola reduces the amount of sugar in its soft drinks.
 
CSR: this has a positive impact, next to doing business.
For example, Nike, which took a stand for inclusiveness and supported the Black Lives Matter movement, and Dove, which fights the beauty ideal.
 
Impact: This is a positive impact through doing business.
Examples include Tony's Chocolonely, which pursues a 100 percent slave-free chocolate market, and Too Good To Go, which combats food waste.
 
Impact is the end, business is the means. The business model was not created for personal
gain, but for collective progress, to provide a solution to a pressing issue.
As long as that issue is there and the urgency is felt, the organization will evolve.

Nice, but how?

Impact organizations understand better than anyone that if you offer the benefits (thirst-quenching, fresh, delicious), but not the drawbacks (questionable substances, sugars, plastic) demand explodes. Especially if you respect the market laws, such as familiarity, availability, and attractiveness (affordability) of your product or service.
 
So, in addition to a beautiful purpose, you have to deliver really, really good products and services. But that is also made easier by a positive purpose, as my research shows. Positive organizations have a culture with four elements: a positive mindset, social safety and cooperation, positive goals, and continuous learning/innovation. Those positive goals (purpose) especially give teams wings! (See my book: Developing a Positive Culture Where People and Performance Thrive)

Many organizations don't have a positive culture, purpose, or strategy. Recent research shows that on average more than 50 percent of employees say they do not know the organization's strategy. So, make strategy and culture simple and inspiring!

Start with why

Roos and Van Zoelen work with Simon Sinek's Golden Circle model. You start with the Why, the mission, or the purpose. This is in the middle of three circles. The ring beyond that is your strategy, the How. This is about how you plan to get the mission done. And the outer ring is the What. What will you do next; the operational plan.
 
Why = Purpose
For example, work on purpose with these questions.
1. What matters most when looking at current ESG issues? What issue has urgency for you?
2. Perspective: the belief that and how things can be done differently. What will the world look like if you solve this issue?
3. Mission: what do we want to work on? This is the why.
 
Here’s the story of Fairtrade Original as an example.
We see: A world where we bring global cuisine to us. But as we enrich our culinary experiences, we see that the farmers of these products are not fairly compensated and cannot make a decent living. This is not the world we want to live in.
We believe: In trade instead of gifts. In connection, honesty, optimism, pioneering, and entrepreneurship.
We want (mission): to enable farmers to achieve a livable income.
 
How = Strategy
With the why of the mission, you develop the strategy. How will you fulfill the mission? To that end, you answer how you will make a difference in your market, and how you will help your customers with services and products. Answer questions like:
4. Our strategy is to...
5. That's why we're working today on...
 
What = Roadmap
The impact plan is a roadmap where you explain the major steps you will take to get from now to then. It's important to think beyond the horizon, not just about today and tomorrow, but to include the future as well. A question that can work well here is: with what activity or skill must we be world champions to realize this mission?
 
Make a final image when the mission is realized: Suppose you want to work with your organization on a fit and vital society. Then start to visualize what that looks like. You can imagine all sorts of images of energetic, healthy, happy people eating and living healthily, exercising, enjoying nature, developing themselves, being socially connected, and having meaningful work.
That inspires people to make it happen. Next, get to work and make it measurable: measure your progress.
 
Want to know more? As long as this uplifting book is not translated into English yet, check out Sinek’s book Start with Why and my book Developing a Positive Culture.

© Marcella Bremer, 2024

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