Make change
happen
Practical strategies to help sustainability directors, managers & pioneers turn colleagues & stakeholders into active allies
The most common barrier to change in leadership for sustainability?
Even when you have shared goals, conflicting priorities block progress.
Change needs collaboration, not conflict – so you need ways to move beyond conflicting priorities, turning your colleagues and stakeholders into active allies working with you towards your shared goals.
Five steps for effective change
Whether you’re trying to embed sustainability in your organisation’s strategy and operations, or collaborating across a sector, in over 20 years of sustainability leadership, we’ve found that the most effective approach uses these five steps:
1. MAPPING
Make sense of the system and identify key stakeholders and gatekeepers.
2. DISCOVERY
Discover what really matters to them as people, in and beyond their job.
3. CONNECTION
Connect over common ground between what matters to them and the change you want.
4. INVITATION
Invite them to join you and others in working together to make change that matters happen.
5. ACTION
Work together for change with your growing network of engaged and active allies.
We call this Connection Based Change® because at its heart is connecting with colleagues and stakeholders. It’s deep connection over issues that people genuinely care about that makes the way you work together, and the resulting actions and projects, different from yet another initiative.
Team, organisation or sector
This approach to making change happen works within teams, across organisations and between organisations.
You can apply Connection Based Change to make change happen in:
- The C-suite, teams or departments from operations to R&D.
- Your organisation, including start-ups and scale-ups; public, private or third sector.
- Industry collaborations, cross-sector partnerships and more.
Multiple benefits
Connection Based Change doesn’t only help you achieve your goal, this way of working develops people’s:
- Ongoing commitment to working together towards shared goals.
- Skills, capacities and resilience needed to work for sustainability (the Inner Development Goals).
- Sense of purpose and meaning in work and life.
This means your project has multiple benefits for your organisation, including employee wellbeing, engagement and retention.
At Realise Earth our aim is to accelerate change for sustainability. We help leaders embed sustainability in their organisations, and we help purpose-led businesses and NGOs have greater impact. Here’s how…
Consulting & Facilitation
Practical support to help you, your people and your organisation make change happen:
- Consulting; one-to-one and group coaching
- Designing and facilitating meetings and workshops
- Developing and leading change programmes
Most Sustainable Workplace Index
Leverage the Most Sustainable Workplace Index (MSWI) to:
- Identify where Connection Based Change can have most impact
- Provide evidence for developing and implementing plans to develop a more mature sustainability culture
- Benchmark and report continuous improvement on sustainability
At last I seem to be getting some real traction and influence in this and the programme has helped me identify the parts of our organisational system where I could have the most effective influence.
Chris Smith
Subject Lead – Arts
University of Plymouth
Knowing more about how to make change has given me a feeling of empowerment. I’ve been really pleased to see how the approach has worked and is valued.
Sarah Lee
Senior Associate Architect
Stride Treglown
The systems approach was a bit of a lightbulb moment in recognising that we need both direct action on those things we could easily influence as well as pushing for more strategic change.
Oli Mackie
Strategic Service Manager
NSPCC
Osbert and Morag did a great job planning and facilitating the first gathering of the Coalition for Wind Industry Circularity. With their help, new and potential members worked really well together to define how CWIC will operate and to agree its priority action areas.
Paul Cantwell
Knowledge Exchange Fellow
University of Strathclyde
An excellent session. It has helped build strong foundations for our strategic planning and team building. You pitched the format and tone of the sessions just right and, as always, brought a lovely encouraging style.
Ruth Wolstenholme
Managing Directorr
Sniffer
I recommend Osbert for his knowledge and experience, ability to deliver well-structured and successful workshops, and for his deep understanding of sustainability and social responsibility issues and integrity in how he goes about his work.
Dave Gorman
Director of Social Responsibility and Sustainability Department
University of Edinburgh
Practical advice and support
Leadership for Sustainability Guides & Podcast
A growing library of free resources offering insights, tools and techniques to inspire and support you to make change happen, including interviews with sustainability directors, managers and pioneers. Check out the Guides and Podcasts…
Leadership for Sustainability Events
Join our online events with the Realise Earth co-founders and spend an hour with other sustainability directors, managers and pioneers exploring the key issues and challenges that matter to you. Find our upcoming Events…
Leadership for Sustainability Netwalking
Enjoy walks in great places with sustainability people for worthwhile conversations – in and around the Central Belt of Scotland. Share practical experience, spark new ideas and explore the (often unspoken) challenges. Read more…
Latest resources, event invitations and subscriber-only insights.
Meet the Realise Earth team
We’ve been helping sustainability leaders make greater progress for over 20 years, using psychology, systems thinking and a deep understanding of sustainability – alongside a range of practical skills.
Hi, I’m Osbert Lancaster
co-founder & director
I’ve been helping people to be more effective sustainability leaders for over twenty years. I have consulted to numerous organisation, large and small, supporting them to design and deliver sustainability strategies and climate action plans. I’ve taught sustainability at masters level and developed the University of Edinburgh’s first online MSc for professionals tackling the global challenges of environment, development and health.
Hello, I’m Morag Watson
co-founder & director
I’ve been a climate change, sustainability and leadership policy expert for nearly twenty years, and am a former UNESCO expert adviser. I’m Director of Policy for the trade body Scottish Renewables, advising the Scottish and UK governments on transitioning to a net zero, renewables powered energy system. The first sustainability leadership programme Osbert and I created was recognised as an Outstanding Flagship Project by UNESCO for its contribution to UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.
And I’m Richard Profit
co-founder & director
I’m the CEO of the Cool Farm Alliance and former Global Operations Sustainability Senior Manager, PepsiCo, where I led the company’s climate strategy. I work with organisations around the globe, supporting their sustainability journeys as they decarbonise their supply chains.