hampshire's response to climate change; in search of an ...€¦ · • level 2 – ‘gnawing...

Hampshire's response to climate change; in

search of an agile strategy and an achievable action plan

Project undertaken for Hampshire County Council

Attachments Melanie Newman and David Ballard

Alexander Ballard Ltd May 2007

Alexander Ballard Ltd Swindon Innovation Centre Oakfield Campus Marlowe Avenue SWINDON Wiltshire SN3 3JR

Tel: 01793 329936/7 Fax: 01793 329912 Mob: 07778 527771 Email: [email protected]: www.alexanderballard.co.uk

Contents: Attachment A: THE 3 A’s FOR CHANGE AT PROJECT LEVEL......................................3 Attachment B: CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE....................................................................7 Attachment C: CONTEXT – A CRITICAL ISSUE............................................................11 Attachment D: ACTION AND REFLECTION – A KEY TO UNLOCK LEARNING ..........15 Attachment E: DEVELOPING THE CHAMPION ORGANISATION ................................19

© Alexander Ballard Ltd. & Hampshire County Council, May 2007 www.alexanderballard.co.uk; [email protected]

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Attachment A: THE 3 A’s FOR CHANGE AT PROJECT LEVEL

AWARENESS, AGENCY AND ASSOCIATION INTRODUCTION The challenge is simple: almost everyone, at some level, is aware of the reality of climate change, yet very few are taking effective action.

This brief outline explains that there are three fundamentally important components that must all be present for real change to take place: Awareness (of the issue at hand and what it means for us), Agency (what we can do about the issue) and Association (how we might work with others on the issue). Not only must all three be present, they must be managed simultaneously and allowed to reinforce each other in an iterative process to achieve, maintain and build significant progress.

The following table shows what can happen if only one of the three is absent from any change initiative:

Awareness Agency Association Likely Result

‘When all’s said and done, there’s a lot more said than done!’

‘We’re rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic!’

‘I’m banging my head against a brick wall!’

AWARENESS The scientific consensus on climate change is now well established, yet still human change appears to lag behind the necessary levels. One reason for the lack of progress is that there are a number of ‘levels of awareness’, some of which preclude effective response. Alexander Ballard Limited, working for ESPACE, has identified four distinct levels of awareness of climate change:

• Level 0 – ‘Brand Awareness’: the idea of climate change is very widespread indeed; almost 100% of people in Europe have heard of it. Many of these people, however, do not know – or accept – that human activity plays a role in climate change dynamics. This level of awareness is characterised by the phrase: ‘It may be happening but I’m not interested’.


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• Level 1 – ‘It’s Real!’: in the UK around 85% of people understand the stern reality of climate change and some of humanity’s contributions to it. However, they don’t think it will affect them personally. They believe, therefore, that there is no need for them to take action. Like smoking, there is an intellectual acceptance of the science but no sense of responsibility for helping to create the solution: ‘It will be a real problem but not for me and not in my lifetime’.

• Level 2 – ‘Gnawing in the Guts’: some people have come to feel a sense of urgency and a personal commitment to contribute to change. They have grasped the scale and severity of likely climate change impacts and have experienced emotional responses ranging from anxiety through anger to excitement at being able to take action: ‘This may be very important; I must do something!’

• Level 3 – ‘Mature Understanding’: a few have learned of the complex characteristics of the problem and of leverage points for change. These people understand the structure of the issues and are rather rare. It is they, however, who both comprehend the scale and urgency of the problem and can provide vital guidance to leaders (and as leaders) on how best to respond: ‘This is where our efforts can be most effective – here’s what we need to aim for!’

One of the keys to effecting significant change is to help people to move to higher levels of awareness. However, this is by no means a case of simply ‘pumping them full with more information’ (indeed, research shows this is counter-productive). It is important to work with participants at the level where they currently are and allow realisations to take place when they are ready. For some this will mean recognising the short-term economic benefits that can emerge from addressing climate change issues.

When changes in levels of awareness do take place, there is often an emotional response. This is particularly true of the shift from Level 1 to Level 2 awareness. Great care, however, is required to manage their emotional shift to awareness of the potential impacts upon themselves, their children, their communities, humanity, the planet and much of the life they have grown used to. Well managed, however, this shift can help to produce extremely effective change agency.

AGENCY At any given time, agency for an individual can be defined as: ‘the ability to take action in a way that is meaningful to me right now’. Depending on the level of awareness of the individual in question, this can mean anything from saving on fuel and transport bills and protecting the value of their home to devising strategic interventions for global-scale policy-makers.

Higher-level agency, as we have seen, requires a corresponding level of awareness of the nature, scale and urgency of the problem. However, it is important to learn how to work with people at any level of awareness. And this requires that each individual is:

a) motivated to take action b) empowered to take action

Motivation comes from learning, at any level, why action should be taken and what types of change can realistically be achieved. Many will simply want answers to the questions: ‘What’s in it for me?’ and ‘How does this effect what I care about?’ Empowerment


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requires that motivation is channelled towards specific existing opportunities or those that can reasonably be created or foreseen.

One irony of the learning process is that, as awareness increases, often participants become somewhat overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge. This, in turn, can deter many from taking action – or even from learning more. Again, what is required is that this understandable sense of powerlessness is acknowledged and the process towards agency carefully facilitated. An effective way of doing this is to help individuals to identify their own unique ‘windows of opportunity’. These may be open only briefly and conflicting pressures – for instance demanding work schedules or colleagues’ lower levels of awareness – may present barriers. In addition to skilful facilitation, a vital component in overcoming these barriers is appropriate collaboration.

ASSOCIATION Association with others in pro-environmental groups has been shown to be the single most powerful predictor of effective action for change in this area. Such association is one of the most effective methods of overcoming the ‘learning and action plateau’ caused by participants’ sense of powerlessness. It tends to produce many other benefits as well. Individuals in groups collaborating on climate change tend to become more effective because:

• Changes in their behaviour are normalised – they aren’t seen as counter-cultural as is often the case in the wider community or organisation

• Natural loss of motivation can be overcome, with or without active assistance from fellow group members – sometimes a sympathetic listening is all that is required

• ‘Nobody is as clever as everybody’ – colleagues’ different views on challenges can help overcome barriers; new or enhanced opportunities may be identified

• Shared learning can create new learning – multiple perspectives on a topic can help to create breakthrough openings for all concerned: ‘wholes greater than the sums of their parts’

• Learning and action grow ‘virally’ – all members have their own networks through which to spread the learning achieved and from which to attract additional participants, sometimes valuable specialists.

These benefits have been shown to accrue only if members of such a group understand that association, in this sense, is more than simply ‘showing up for meetings’. Participants need to feel part of a collaborative effort by a group of people committed to shared goals.


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Case Study In some cases, association has created opportunities which simply would not have existed otherwise. In one construction project in the UK, a group was formed comprising representatives of the various specialist contracting companies involved. Normally these specialists had little contact with each other, particularly on the environmental agenda.

As the group members explored possible improvements that could be made to the environmental performance of the building, one roofing specialist suggested doubling the insulation thickness. The cost was initially deemed a barrier to competitiveness. Then the plumbing contractors suggested they may need considerably less hardware and labour in fitting the heating systems if this extra insulation were added.

The computer simulations showed that the plumbers’ savings exceeded the roofers’ additional expenditure. A ‘contra’ arrangement was made and the new building became considerably more environmentally benign.

Not only did all participants learn and improve their performance on the project without paying an economic price, the project was a PFI scheme, requiring that the main contractors take responsibility for the management of the new structure for 27 years. The energy savings therefore represented a significant economic benefit to them as well.

A success in association creating increased awareness and an agency opportunity that benefited all concerned!


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Attachment B: CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE

INTRODUCTION Extensive and varied research over many years and across numerous change-related projects has revealed a significant truth: ‘No champion, no change!’ as one astute observer put it. The presence of a champion – or numerous champions – has consistently proven to be a necessary condition for meaningful change on any scale, in any setting, on any subject, at any time. In addressing climate change issues this criterion is at least as important as in any other field of endeavour, perhaps more so, since the stakes are very high indeed, as is the level of urgency.

WHAT IS A CHAMPION? What we mean by ‘a champion’ is someone who combines a number of specific characteristics, of which two ‘core qualities’ are absolute necessities if they are to be effective as change agents:

• Passion – a climate change champion is invariably someone who has reached Awareness Level 2 or higher (see The Three A’s for Change: Awareness, Agency and Association) and has developed not only an intellectual understanding of the climate change crisis but has also experienced an emotional response which drives a powerful commitment to making a difference. In a sense it becomes a personal ‘mission’.

• Agency – champions search relentlessly for ways to maximise their impact on the problem. Reluctant to remain in the ‘comfort zone’ of familiar ways of getting things done, they actively seek out innovative ways to influence others and to break down personal and organisational barriers. This is the search for Agency. It can often lead to frustration and the decision to change career paths in an attempt to find a more strategic, more effective role. Alternatively, as awareness increases, it can prompt climate champions to build patterns of increasingly powerful influence and change from within an existing position, through growing specialist knowledge and credibility.

In addition to these ‘core qualities’ numerous other traits are consistently found in effective climate champions. One is, paradoxically, ‘cool-headedness’. This may seem strange in someone who is acknowledged, among other things, for their passion, yet it has consistently proven valuable. If potential champions allow their passion to overflow into impatience, intolerance and anger, for instance, they risk diminishing their ability to influence others. It is extremely important that champions learn to work simultaneously with conflicting feelings such as optimism and anxiety; patience and a sense of urgency; single-mindedness and listening to others; sharp focus and trust in the human change process. Failure to reconcile these ‘opposites’ can all too frequently lead to isolation (having, for instance, alienated colleagues) or burn-out (having failed to achieve effective agency).


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Additional qualities frequently found in champions include, in various combinations: courage, tenacity, voracious research, resilience, authority, networking skills and a special gift for communication.

The voice of authority often emerges from the climate champion’s natural passion and thirst for knowledge on the subject. There is more, however, to this communication gift. Champions tend not to refute the positions of others, preferring to understand participants’ own views and work with them to ‘re-frame within the bigger picture’. In this way potential conflict can become willing and productive collaboration.

The most effective champions seem to have a talent for speaking equally well to a diversity of audiences, sometimes simultaneously. They tend to ‘translate’ as they go so that a variety of stakeholders can understand in their own terms what is being explained, explored or advocated. Individuals with this important skill have been described as ‘Boundary Spanners’. They are vital in any work on cross-cutting issues such as climate change, particularly in so broad a collaboration as ESPACE.

“Working on the margins of policy and cross boundaries often brings out the people with relevant skills. They can work together because of similarities in 'world view' even if professional backgrounds are very different. The importance of having "boundary spanners" in the organisation cannot be underestimated as they are the people whose job it is to make cross-cutting issues work.”

‘Cross-cutting Issues in Public Policy and Public Service’ - DETR 1999. Crown copyright.

HOW DO WE FIND OUR CHAMPIONS? This admirable person who is the archetypal climate champion may, by now, sound rather superhuman, yet, encouragingly, they can be found in most organisations. However, that can prove also to be one of the challenges: they tend to be spread, both vertically and horizontally – at all levels of seniority and across all departmental boundaries.

There are a number of types of climate champion:

• Formal champions: those who are elected members or senior managers with a formally-agreed remit to address climate change. These people have credibility and the power to harness together differing parties over a specific issue. They also provide a specific place for people to go with climate change issues

• Informal visible champions: those for whom climate change forms a part of their primary function (working, for instance, in broadscale sustainability) and who are visible in their championship of climate change within that role. These individuals are often able to contribute on long-term (across electoral cycles in the public sector) organisational capacity-building and other strategic initiatives.


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• Informal, less visible champions: those whose personal interest in climate change may be considerable but whose formal remit does not explicitly include it. These low-visibility champions are, by definition, harder to identify, yet they can play a key role, particularly in spotting ‘windows of opportunity’. Local transport planning, for instance, can create openings for powerful climate-related interventions but these can easily be missed, under normal procedures, until it is too late

There is a fourth type of champion: the ‘Issue-Based Champion’. Occasionally, someone with a suitably passionate, energetic nature and significant overlapping interests and specialist skills or knowledge can be ‘recruited to the cause’. Someone, for instance, whose background is in town planning might add to an organisation’s efforts to deal with climate change. Since the field of town planning presents very clear and substantial climate change challenges – and concomitant opportunities for improved performance – such assistance can be critical. The ‘Issue-Based Champion’ may participate only in a specific project and then disengage. Or, as sometimes happens, they may move over to fully-fledged climate champion status thereafter!

HOW CAN CHAMPIONS BEST MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

As we have seen, above, climate champions can face numerous difficulties, among them feelings of isolation, frustration, powerlessness and a consequent lack of sustained motivation.

In order to help in overcoming these problems and to stimulate increased ‘agency’ it has become clear that the creation and facilitation of an interconnected group of champions can yield considerable benefits.

Work carried out by Alexander Ballard Limited for the ESPACE Partnership has demonstrated that ‘association’ is a vitally important part of all human change endeavours. In this case, an ‘ecosystem of champions’ – a network of climate champions throughout, beyond and between organisations – can make a remarkable difference. In addition to the soothing effects upon champions’ painful experiences, it can also help to produce increased learning, greater and faster change and other advantageous outcomes (see The Three A’s for Change: Awareness, Agency and Association).


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Case Study A senior scientist in a European subsidiary of a global hardware manufacturing company was also a keen environmentalist. He wanted to set up an environmental learning and action group. He asked his employers for the use of a meeting room and a coffee machine for an hour every Friday evening. He put up notices in all staff canteens and other common areas throughout the company’s premises.

By the end of a month he had attracted a few supporters to his team. By the end of six months there were a dozen or so. The participants agreed to begin by replacing plastic coffee cups throughout the premises with washable china mugs. Then they started up a car-share club, looked into recycling packaging, energy use in heating and several other such matters. The team grew, learned and acted more; the company began to make significant economic savings as well as boosting their reputation.

After a year the senior management team asked the founder to hire three colleagues and take on the role of environmental co-ordinator full-time. After three years his team’s systems were being replicated all over the world, including at the company’s headquarters and manufacturing plants in the USA.

A further consequence of establishing such a group is that participants find they become more familiar with the workings of complex systems, from organisations to woodlands to communities. Not only does this help the climate champion to become more successful in that role, it tends to create better leaders in other areas as well. An understanding of complex system dynamics, effective communications, managing conflicting emotions along with human performance and change are important qualities to strategists in a wide variety of leadership roles.


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Attachment C: CONTEXT – A CRITICAL ISSUE

INTRODUCTION If the issue of context is not addressed, change of any kind is highly unlikely. If it is addressed inappropriately, the best intentions may lead to a worsening of the current situation.

Many change initiatives in numerous fields of endeavour have stumbled or been written off entirely as the result of a number of simply stated – though not necessarily simply solved – misunderstandings. Some examples are:

• Change initiatives invariably involve people and they very rarely behave predictably or consistently: ‘we’ve changed the law – why aren’t people behaving differently?’

• It is not enough to address technical issues in isolation: ‘there are state-of-the-art recycling facilities in every town – why are so few people using them?’

• Communities, organisations, planets and people are complex systems and do not often respond well to simplistic change approaches: ‘Well, we’ve fixed the rodent problem but we’ve poisoned all the cats in the neighbourhood!’

Context invariably plays a key role in change programmes, usually in the form of constraints to progress. It is important to learn to identify and deal with these constraints, particularly the types that occur repeatedly. In this way, one can significantly increase the likelihood of effective change taking place and reduce the risk of a great deal of time, effort, goodwill and money being wasted.

MAPPING CONTEXTUAL CONSTRAINTS Alexander Ballard Limited recommended, in its work on the ESPACE project, the use of a simple 2x2 matrix, developed by them from work undertaken by American author Ken Wilber, to map the contextual factors which play a part in addressing climate change issues.

1. Individual subjective factors

Limiting personal values, worldview, assumptions

2. Individual objective factors

Limitations of one’s skills, knowledge, contacts

3. Collective subjective factors

Organisational cultures, shared norms, national

and regional characteristics

4. Collective objective factors

Political, economic, social, technological, legal and

environmental limitations


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Quadrant 1: Individual subjective factors

We all carry, consciously or otherwise, assumptions, belief systems and values which can prevent us from perceiving or acting upon climate change challenges. Many of us believe that we are just ‘not clever enough’ or ‘not well-connected’ or ‘too busy’ to do anything worthwhile about the problem. Almost everyone feels powerless in the face of the immensity of climate change which tends to lock them into inertia. Others may simply not have personal values which extend to caring for those in other parts of the world or for future generations.

Quadrant 2: Individual objective factors Quadrant 2 barriers are external phenomena which can be tested empirically, unlike beliefs and mindsets. One may not, for instance, have the skills required to assess the vulnerability of a new building to climate impacts. In such cases, we must either acquire these skills or find someone who has them. If we struggle to achieve the latter, then we may need to acquire appropriate networking skills or learn other communications techniques.

Quadrant 3: Collective subjective factors Even those whose personal beliefs and capabilities are entirely capable of contributing to valuable change may find that they are constrained by something bigger: the broadly shared norms or culture of their organisation. Or there may be a wider-scale challenge: their community, national or religious beliefs may discourage or preclude certain behaviours.

For example: a house builder wished to create a development of over fifty eco-homes in the UK. His company was advised by construction industry professionals that his insistence on local timber would require that they submit much higher costings to the bank, thus jeopardising the entire project. The reason given was that the professionals had never encountered such a request before and ‘unknowns’ automatically triggered a cost-loading response. The project was finally financed by the bank when the developer located a local family firm who could supply green oak at very competitive rates.

4. Quadrant 4: Collective objective factors Quadrant 4 constraints usually come from the six commonly-acknowledged areas of corporate strategy known collectively as ‘PESTLE’: political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental barriers to change.

An eco-hotel in the UK, wishing to fit double-glazed windows and solar and wind power systems, came up against not only planning constraints but also listed buildings legislation (the hotel is based in an eighteenth-century building, listed as of architectural significance). Here, different departments of the local authority found themselves at odds with each other.

In another sector, a group of Benelux farmers worked together to create a system of dams (‘stuwen’) to save up to 4 million m3 of water per annum. Then they discovered that the local planning regulations forbade the system. They next worked successfully with local legislators to change the relevant laws. This precedent now informs local legislation


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and future generations too will benefit. In this way spatial planning has had a significant positive impact on climate change adaptation.

WORKING WITH THE CONTEXTUAL CHANGE MODEL We have looked briefly at some examples of contextual barriers in specific areas. It is vital, however, to understand that all four boxes of the contextual change model must be considered simultaneously. Often an alteration in one of the four boxes can trigger changes in any or all of the others. It is therefore essential that likely consequences be explored before making change in any area.

Occasionally, for example, a well-intentioned movement in one box may actually worsen the overall position. For example, developing a small, specialist group within an organisation so that they become experts on climate change, may not help the organisation as a whole to move forward in understanding and action. If the rest of the organisation feels relatively disempowered, for example, or even alienated, by their colleagues’ expertise, they may be less willing to play a part in the overall collaborative movement towards excellence.

On the other hand there are often opportunities to make changes in one area that have great payoffs in other areas. For instance, research shows that most people think they can do nothing meaningful about climate change. Spatial planning processes, on the other hand, potentially offer important opportunities to make communities resilient to climate change and to reduce reliance on carbon-based energy. These are surely meaningful actions – the payoffs are not just in the objective world (lower carbon emissions, more resilient developments) but also show people that there can be agency – the chance to act in a meaningful way.

Timing is an extremely important matter in this context. Opportunities to contribute to profound change often open up only briefly (it may be an application for planning consent, for instance).

There is no point in recognising the opportunities six months too late, however!

It typically takes around a year to get climate champions to the point where they understand

a) that they can effect real change and

b) how to spot an opportunity.

If an opportunity arises and no-one spots it or believes they can use it, nothing changes. If the climate champions have been identified and trained to spot and exploit the opportunity in time they are ideally placed to contribute to significant change.


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Attachment D: ACTION AND REFLECTION – A KEY TO UNLOCK LEARNING

INTRODUCTION Without action, nothing changes; without reflection change stagnates.

In order for significant change to begin, clearly action needs to be taken. If all efforts, however, are focused on action alone, change processes rarely, if ever, improve. When well-managed, cycles of action and reflection not only create desired change, they also stimulate a learning process which tends to improve the efficacy of a change programme over time.

There are several distinct levels of learning; cycles of action and reflection can help all participants to progress through these levels, ‘learning more and learning better’. In this way they become more effective change agents, while contributing to real action as they go.

LEARNING LEVEL 1

This level is concerned with efficiency and is characterised by the question: ‘How do I do things better? It is in this area of learning that participants tend to develop their tactical behaviours, usually in response to advice. Much of the ‘hard work’ of climate change adaptation is actually done by people at Learning Level 1. They may begin to recycle office paper, take the train to work or buy a bicycle for commuting. They may also develop or improve the skills they need to work on the issue in other ways.

LEARNING LEVEL 2 Learning Level 2 is about effectiveness: ‘How can I do better things?’ Here people begin to make inquiries as to the most successful strategies they might adopt. At this stage individuals are ‘framing’ their role in a new way. By this means, they are beginning to explore ways in which their own position, skills and relationship sets might be put to use in uniquely productive ways.

LEARNING LEVEL 3

As individuals evolve to the third learning level, they begin asking ‘What am I being efficient or effective for?’ At this stage they are exploring their purpose, certainly in a climate change adaptation programme, often in life as a whole. Many people have by now acquired the passion and agency levels that are capable of inspiring a ‘climate champion’ (see Champions for Change). People at this level can become extremely powerful agents of change and will often consider significant career moves to increase their effectiveness.

IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR EINSTEIN… There is a much-quoted statement, attributed to Albert Einstein: “We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” This perfectly illustrates the benefits of action and reflection. As individuals and groups work on changing external conditions and also regularly convene to reflect – or reflect alone – on the effects produced, learning inevitably takes place. We frequently start with a How? question, for instance: ‘How might we


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halve this organisation’s car-based commuting miles? Action is then taken and results generated. It is when we then reflect on the consequences of this initial action that learning begins. Someone may have spoken with the local bus company and discovered that, subject to a minimum daily volume of passengers, the company would be willing to provide a dedicated service. Another may have established a car-share arrangement with colleagues, only to find that he was now arriving late every day. For each such action, reflective practice will provide learning opportunities. It is by no means the case that all actions produce desirable results. However, this proves the value of the action and reflection approach. Every error of judgment or unforeseen barrier to desired change need only occur for as long as it takes to yield learning which solves that problem once and for all. Frequently it is the ‘mistakes’ and ‘pitfalls’ which provide the best learning and the greatest breakthroughs to more effective change thereafter. THE ACTION AND REFLECTION ‘ACCELERATOR’ The ‘accelerator’ factor in action and reflection is its ability not only to inspire change through action in ways that straightforward research cannot; it also has the inevitable effect of helping participants to become increasingly effective in their ‘agency’. As people grow past simply acquiring more skills, they begin to reflect on how they acquire skills, on how their skills might better be deployed and so on. This ‘meta-learning’ is the means by which they move from one learning level to the next. I may, for instance, have been struggling with the advanced meteorology required to understand how changing weather may affect buildings. I might learn instead to frame my needs clearly to a group of meteorologists and building specialists at the local university and inspire them to participate in our project. In this way I have:

• Overcome the problem of my inability to understand meteorology and building science

• Added nonetheless to the level of my team’s proficiency in this area • Brought to the team new individuals who doubtless have many other

useful contributions to make • Increased the range and efficacy of my networking and advocacy skills • Provided my group with a model of strategic intervention which others may

find useful in their own roles Among other things, the use of cycles of action and reflection provides a very incisive tool for addressing issues of ‘context’. It is especially useful where ‘internal contexts’ are concerned and personal self-limiting beliefs or cultural barriers are hampering progress. Well facilitated learning processes not only help


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us to overcome external barriers but also those in our own heads (see Context – A Critical Issue). If numerous members of a group are raising their awareness and action in a similar way, the learning and external performance of each individual and of the group as a whole can accelerate very successfully. It is important to note that, in order to optimise the results achieved and the rate of learning acceleration, a suitably trained facilitator can make all the difference. Such a professional can not only help to guide structured reflection sessions and teach important listening skills, they can often help to play ‘midwife’ to emerging breakthroughs and even prevent (if required!) the breakdown of a group when emotions, as occasionally they will, run high. CHANGING THE WORLD IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE Action and reflection also solves other important problems. The ESPACE project not only involves a geographically and culturally diverse group, it is also working to address a huge challenge: global climate change. For many people, faced with a task of this enormity, there seems to be no way to make a significant difference. One feels overwhelmed and thus cannot even begin to take action. Using this approach, however, the issues can be addressed in bite-sized pieces; as learning grows and its influence spreads, the impacts achieved tend also to grow exponentially, as with much other systemic change. An example of this phenomenon at work is the UK farmers’ markets movement. Farmers’ markets have given farmers and consumers the chance significantly to reduce their part in the emissions created through international food freight and refrigeration. The food industry is the third largest contributor to carbon emissions in Britain. The change began when a small group in the city of Bath decided to explore the possibility of linking local producers to local customers. Eventually, after much trial and error, three pilot days were arranged for a farmers’ market in the city. The response was overwhelming and before long Bath Farmers’ Market became a weekly event. Soon the founders were featured on national television and national newspapers picked up the story from this documentary. All over the country television viewers and newspaper readers learned of this new scheme. Many began working to set up their own markets. At the time of writing there are over 500 farmers’ markets throughout the UK. To conclude, an image which elegantly illustrates the action and reflection process: there are a number of people trying at night to find their way through a dark forest. They can all see a beacon far off, beyond the forest and this is their goal. Each of them has a torch, whose beam reaches only three metres in any direction. They work in small groups and occasionally one person strikes out


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alone. As they pass through the undergrowth, frequently some of them can no longer see the beacon but eventually someone reaches a clearing and calls out ‘I can see it, it’s this way!’ As they go, they encounter many obstacles: fallen trees, badger setts, streams, old fences and rocks. Every so often someone calls out: ‘Watch out, there’s a fallen tree here,’ or ‘I’ve found a gap in the bushes, just walk carefully towards my waving light’. Eventually they all reach the beacon. They have all achieved their goal, they have all contributed to this achievement and each has received help from the others. They all started out knowing their ultimate goal. No-one knew beforehand what challenges they would face. Someone had to take the first step

Without action there is nothing to reflect upon; without reflection there is no learning how to act better


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Attachment E: DEVELOPING THE CHAMPION ORGANISATION INTRODUCTION

“Ignoring climate change poses great financial, social and environmental risk

Robust spatial planning has a crucial part to play in minimising the risk of climate

change, however current frameworks are poorly developed and are unable to deal adequately with this risk. ESPACE aims to tackle this problem by ensuring that

adaptation strategies are incorporated into spatial planning systems.

…ESPACE will also focus on a major issue at the core of adaptation – a lack of

awareness and understanding of climate change. ESPACE will raise awareness among a wide range of stakeholders including policymakers, practitioners and members of the

community to ensure that climate change is acknowledged as a major influence on spatial planning processes.”

www.espace-project.org/about.htm

If ESPACE is to achieve the above goals, stated on its website, then it is essential that its Partner Organisations, the members of the Extended Partnership and other stakeholders begin to operate and collaborate in ways that are productive of profound understanding and change.

What is needed is that we begin to develop organisations so that more than a small number of individuals and groups understand how the climate change crisis affects them and their services – and act accordingly. Entire organisations need to become much more capable of learning, changing and contributing to inter-organisational learning and change.

This is a key enabler for climate change adaptation (and indeed mitigation) to take place on a wide enough scale, to an adequate depth and with sufficient urgency for the “…great financial, social and environmental risk “, mentioned above, to be addressed effectively.

ORGANISATIONAL LEVELS OF REPONSE Alexander Ballard Limited, in its work, through ESPACE, with Hampshire County Council and the South East Climate Change Partnership, has begun to distinguish betwen six distinct organisational levels of response to climate change:


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http://www.espace-project.org/about.htm

Level 1 – Non-Responsive This level of response is now relatively rare among larger organisations. In such an organisation senior managers will feel threatened by climate change. They feel this not so much because of the environmental, social and economic threats the issue represents but other reasons. These include its complexity and the increasing emphasis being placed upon the topic among legislators, the media, investor groups, activists and customers. The response is one of denial, burying heads in the sand, hoping the problem will simply go away. There will be reluctant, opportunistic action, if any; no resources will be allocated.

Level 2 – Compliant This level is still one of reactivity as opposed to proactivity. There is somewhat more action than at Level 1 and perhaps a small or occasional allocation of ‘fire fighting’ budgets. The actions taken are generally in response to external stimuli such as customer complaints, investor demands or, increasingly, changing legislation. Typically those few internal influences that spur change come from areas such as facilities management staff, occasionally from elected members or non-executive directors. There is no attempt to go looking for opportunities to act and no strategic plan to direct engagement or look for growing return on investment. Manager’s timescales reflect their position in the organisational hierarchy and are measured in weeks or months.

Level 3 – Efficient Management At this level, climate change begins to enter the proactive agenda. The ‘ad hocracy’ gives way to a more systematic response as some individuals recognise the need to address the issue as a management priority. It is still seen as one among many separate tactical disciplines, as are, say, human resources or health and safety. Climate change is now dealt with on a regular basis as a part of the set of management processes. Measurement systems will be developed, targets set and dedicated staff appointed. Senior management, however, seeing this as a secondary priority, will delegate the work to middle managers. It will be treated as a technical problem and will manifest in such forms as ISO 14001 certification and, often, PR-focused reporting procedures. Timescales will typically be linked to the operational planning cycle – usually annual.

Level 4 – Strategic Experimentation This is the level at which the senior management team begins to think about the very real risks and opportunities posed by climate change. Response becomes both proactive and innovative. While the majority of the more time-consuming action is still delegated, senior managers will become more actively involved in setting the agenda and monitoring progress, with senior levels of the organisation becoming actively interested in projects. There is a focus upon searching for breakthrough performances through experimentation; original thinking is encouraged. Managers’ timescales lengthen and are typically three to five years.


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Level Five – Strategic Responsiveness Here the links with core strategic thinking have been acknowledged and are being acted upon, decisively and iteratively, by the senior team. Climate change has become a key theme in mainstream, long-term strategic thinking and day-to-day activities throughout and beyond the organisation. Senior managers are personally involved in setting policies and overseeing tactical responses. The impacts on organisational resilience are explicitly addressed in areas such as capital, real estate, people, plant, services and products. Managers’ timescales are congruent with other major decisions and investment cycles – at least five to ten years.

Level Six – The ‘Champion Organisation’ Consistent performance at this level is extremely rare – Interface Carpets (whose CEO’s stated goal is to go beyond long-term sustainability to become ‘a restorative organisation’) may be the only example. Here issues concerning the role of organisations as servants of society (or not) are addressed. Systematic response has been transcended to achieve systemic response. The understanding, range and nature of significant stakeholder relationships have been extended to include former critics, future generations and the global levels of the economy and ecology. Managers’ timescales are linked to global trends – decades and more.

There are several features of the climate change agenda that make it vitally important that organizations respond at the highest possible strategic (or even meta-strategic) level and make every effort to raise their current level continually:

• It is a global phenomenon; leaders’ timescales, thinking and action needs to be based on global, long-term strategies. Only high-level organisations and leaders can achieve and maintain this

• Paradoxically, these long-term-thinking, visionary organisations also need to see and act upon the true urgency of climate change. Change at the level that is required will take many years. With an accelerating problem, however, every month’s delay can add years to the time it may take to arrest deterioration

• As shown by the UK’s recent Stern Review, the global economy could suffer climate change-related damage of between 5% and 20% of total GDP if we don’t act appropriately and decisively

• Stern continues to point out that effective action, begun now, need only cost around 1% of GDP or less

• There are significant economic advantages to being among the leaders of this change: many revenue-generating opportunities exist as well as the ability to avoid anticipated growth in carbon taxes and spiraling energy costs

SO HOW DOES AN ORGANISATION IMPROVE ITS RESPONSE LEVEL? To complement the work on the six ‘Levels of Responsiveness’, Alexander Ballard Limited is currently working to refine a set of ‘Pathways for Change’ which its research is showing to be necessary for demonstrable progress. This early work will continue into


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the ESPACE Extension Programme with a specific focus on organisational change issues around spatial planning. The agreed goal is to build on this to deliver and deploy a set of tools which will enable organisations to measure their current levels of responsiveness, learn what has worked best elsewhere and continue to improve their own development and performance.

What are the likely pathways? A draft set of nine has been developed and is being tested before beginning work in late 2007. Here are some examples of what a well responding organisation will be doing:

1. Identifying and developing climate change champions (see Champions for Change). Clearly a ‘Champion Organisation’ will be better at doing this and will do it differently than, say, a ‘Compliant Organisation’.

2. Raising the level of ‘awareness’ of how climate change impacts the organisation, now and into the future (see The Three A’s of Change: Awareness, Agency and Association)

3. Be good at recognising and deploying specialist skills where they can add most to resilience of facilities and services.

Case Study Every UK subsidiary of a FTSE 250 PLC in the construction sector reviewed performance on a set of pathways that focused on environmental management (rather than climate change issues). Their brief was to learn to respond creatively and profitably to the environmental agenda and to put the learning into practice.

Annual reviews were conducted and used in targeting areas for improvement. Managers found the process helpful in showing how performance could improve rapidly.

Over three years the performances of these subsidiaries improved significantly and measurably. They improved to the extent that some companies, who had previously not seen the relevance of issues such as climate change at all, became among the leaders in the field.


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hampshire's response to climate change; in search of an ...€¦ · • level 2 – ‘gnawing...

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