As stated before, we don’t believe such technocratic or instrumental approach is going to be effective. We note that a company can have a high position in a sustainability ranking, while its employees may not even be aware of the sustainability ambition. Sustainability management is turning into a bureaucratic effort and the instrumental approach to sustainability has created a ‘virtual reality’, where the paper exercise of check-lists and company scores instead of the material transition towards a more sustainable economy has become the objective.

 

I am convinced that companies have to take a fundamentally different approach. Not external benchmarks, but their own strategic agenda and true stakeholder demands have to be put at the heart of their plans. Moreover: the intended transition implies making fundamental choices. This will require Big Hairy Audacious Goals, ‘blood, sweat and tears”. I’m convinced it requires getting out of the comfort zone.

 

During my research on the comfort zone and performance management, I read an interesting article by Alasdair White (“From Comfort Zone to Performance Management, April 2008). He constructs the following definition: “the comfort zone is a behavioural state within which a person operates in an anxiety-neutral condition, using a limited set of behaviours to deliver a steady level of performance, usually without a sense of risk.”

 

Bingo! I thought, this is equally true for an organisation and it is not to be expected that in such behavioural state a fundamental transition can be realised. Such would require a higher level of anxiety and performance, and imply taking a risk. In his paper, White describes how too much stress can move somebody to the danger zone of performance deterioration. Therefore, the objective is to lead a subject into the ‘optimal performance zone’, so that their skills are increased and they become comfortable with the level of anxiety, enabling them to consistently deliver an increased level of performance. This way the subject builds a new and expanded comfort zone.

 

I will continue my research on an improved conceptual framework for sustainability management. But I believe that Alasdair White’s paper provides fundamental and useful ideas that will help companies to end the ‘ratings game’ and to make more robust contributions to sustainable development. Do you have additional input for my research?