CEOs lamented that all too often, sustainability change agents approach the executive team trying to propose a new strategy instead of clearly articulating how sustainability ties into the existing business strategy.
"For me the key thing is to find a way to demonstrate that dealing with environmental and social issues is important to either making the organization successful or guard against the risk of it becoming unsuccessful, instead of trying to widen the definition of what success is for the organization." (CEO)
"My strategy has always been to start off with the views that you know people share. Then when you finally get to what you're about to share, they can't help but agree with the end result. Because it's very difficult to jump into a conversation and say to people, "You've got to change." (Change Agent)
"…you have to make sure that you paint the right longer-term picture of the importance of this for society, your business's customers, and therefore your business's long-term health and sustainability. I think you've got to frame it in that context." (CEO)
The challenge of triggering successful disruptive changes seems to be less about talented and visionary 'gurus' leading hordes of followers, and more about change agents that are able to read their environment, build innovative opportunities, and synthesize or improve change proposals that people value1.