Sep 256 min read

An A-Z of Sustainability: Q is for Questions

This week’s article is a little different in that I won’t be talking about a specific sustainability topic, but more a mindset that is critical for sustainability managers to be successful – asking questions and providing challenge.

Sustainability managers are effectively running a large change management programme. You are painting that picture of where you want to get to and setting bold targets, and challenging the status quo is a large determinant of success.

Sustainability managers should challenge the status quo

If you’ve ever been involved in a big companywide IT system you might have been invited to process mapping workshops where you’ll be asked to outline the way that things happen now (the “as is process”) and subsequently the new process (the “to be” process”) will be debated. The difference between these is the change that needs to be managed.

So, what is the equivalent in sustainability? For a start it’s not as simple because usually in an IT system change there is documentation around how things are done now, and the new system will come with standard “to be” processes which you’ll want to alter as little as possible. With the change you are managing as a sustainability manager, you may not have everything that happens now documented and you’ll be the one creating the “to be”. So, a little bit challenging to say the least!

To find out how things happen now you’ll have to ask a lot of questions, of lots of people. In fact, often the same question to lots of people to really understand what is happening and why. If you’ve ever spent any time with young children you’ll know the “but, why?” phase where their thirst for understanding leads to incessant asking of “why?” until they are satisfied with your answer before then moving onto the next topic. I’m not sure you should be aiming for the resulting exhaustion of being on the receiving end of such a barrage, but the mindset of not accepting the first answer as a full explanation is a good one to have. If you’ve been in this scenario with a youngster, it’s amazing how often you realise that you are not totally sure why things are as they are and that your initial answer can be an explanation of what something is but not necessarily why.

Using the 5 whys technique

This sort of questioning approach has even found its way into the manufacturing

excellence toolkit. There is a technique called the “5 whys” to really get to the knub of why things have happened. Usually, it involves getting a cross functional team together to work out why a problem occurred, but the mindset is useful. Often the first answer given in such a situation is a symptom not a cause, indeed subsequent answers may just be further symptoms, and the idea is that you keep asking a collective why until you really reach the root cause.

For instance, the first question might be “why did the manufacturing line run below expected efficiency last week?” and the answer might be “because it didn’t run for a couple of hours on Monday night.” So then you ask why was that the case? Well, because we ran out of a key raw material. Why did we run out? Because the supplier didn’t deliver enough? Why? Because we forecast less than we needed. Why? Because sales didn’t tell us they secured a promotion with a big customer. You get the idea. In this case, to address the root cause there may need to be training, a new system or process introduced. As a sustainability manager you are trying to get the reason things are as they are so that you can see how they can be changed and to have, for instance, less environmental impact.

We’ve always done it that way

Back in my days in the paint industry, I ran a project to make the business more efficient and take cost out. One thing that really stuck with me was the day that we uncovered that one of our factories had ninety-two different lids for paint cans that they were using on site. Now we did have a few different pack sizes, but maybe ten at most. Some also had to be metal or plastic for sensible product reasons. But ninety-two different varieties? We had some white, some blue, some green, some with logos on, some with slightly different logos on, some with no logos on …. and so it went until the ninety-two different varieties! When we spoke to the manufacturing folk they were frustrated as the management of the variants was very time intensive and created other issues. When we asked them, “why then did we have all these variants?”, we went through a few responses until it really boiled down to “because marketing want them.” When we spoke to marketing they had various reasons but often these couldn’t really be justified once they understood what the implications in the factory were.

This example was really about reducing cost (although there were sustainability benefits too) but it taught some big lessons that I took into my sustainability work. Firstly, don’t take the first answer you are given as the definitive answer – keep pushing until you really get under the skin. Secondly a lot of things are done the way they are, because “that’s just the way we do thing round here” – there is too much happening day to day for everything to be challenged even as the business evolves over time. Thirdly, often there is not one person who understands the whole picture and teams don’t always challenge each on implications of decisions, particularly if it is the cumulative impact of multiple decisions over time that creates the issue.

As a sustainability manager you can come in and ask the naïve questions. In fact, one of the enjoyable aspects of being in sustainability is that it gives you license to stick your nose in anywhere to find out how things work and how they can be done with lower impacts. When you ask the questions though, be on the lookout for red flags, things like those “we’ve always done it that way” or “customers want it this way” type responses.

Breaking mindset barriers

Another way to approach things is to ask a team to come up with ideas if, say, lowering carbon footprint was the only thing that was critical. This can be useful with innovation teams or engineering teams for instance. It is amazing how often people pre-filter ideas because they think it won’t work because of a perceived internal barrier. But if you take all the barriers away and start from a single-issue problem-solving mindset you can uncover some interesting ideas. Then you can start to add in questions like “how could we do this and still hit the same quality?” or “what would need to happen to do this at the same cost?.” But if you started with cost and quality, the low carbon idea may never have surfaced. In marketing jargon, you are moving from a “can’t because” approach to a “can do, if” mindset.

You can take this questioning into things like reporting requirements too. Ask how you can make the requirements work for you. What is already in your systems, how can you add to existing processes, how can the information help you push the sustainability agenda forward in a commercially relevant way? This last bit is important - for all your questioning, you must also be pragmatic and recognise commercial reality.

So go out and ask questions. Be curious but not aggressive: you’re trying to gain understanding, not create defensiveness. And challenge the status quo, but not so much that any conversation with you leaves the other person exhausted with flash backs to their children as toddlers!

Any questions?

About the Author

Chris is a senior strategic leader with over 25 years’ commercial experience including sales, marketing, strategic planning and major business change initiatives at AkzoNobel and ICI. He has a wide knowledge of sustainability and how to integrate this into business having held senior sustainability roles at AkzoNobel for 12 years, including as Global Sustainability Director Decorative Paints and AkzoNobel Planet Possible Programme Manager. Chris is now an independent sustainability consultant and a pension trustee director.