Why am I (still) doing this...?

I'm interested in helping organisations achieve the change they need to deliver better performance in areas that are often called sustainability

Seeking to understand the impact an organisation has on people and ecosystems beyond its employees and premises is a change for most businesses. Typically this hasn't been done. The theory and practice of it weren't handed down from previous generations of leaders, so those trying today need to be pioneers.

There are interesting tools available to help. My sense is that there will be many more in the future - as broader system's thinking catches up with the mainstream (or vice versa). But I've seen enough impact initiatives to know that it's not the tools that will make or break them - it's vision, commitment and resilience.

It is a certainty that the information you need in your business to truly understand the impact you're having will be harder to reach than you thought. Even when you've allowed for the fact that it's going to be challenging (thank you Mr Hofstadter). It will take longer to get than you thought and be of poorer quality when you find it. As a consequence, its meaning will be less clear. It won't support the incisive business decisions you anticipated, or the behaviour and perspective change you dreamed of. You probably won't feel comfortable talking to your customers and shareholders about it. So you'll probably stop - and say it was too hard, couldn't be done, and anyway, there were other more important things to do.

That's what I want to help with.

If the people who work in your organisation, from the board down, really understood its impact, and the risk that represents, they wouldn't give up.

If those people understood just how powerful it would be to really, dramatically improve the performance of the system they are part of, and therefore reduce its impact, they'd keep going.

If they could get comfortable with talking about it anyway - despite it not being perfect, or perhaps being shockingly bad - they'd redouble their efforts.

It's going to be a long journey. We have to think more deeply, plan in more detail and secure resources to deliver more completely.

That's what I want to help with.