Transition requires choices now: successful companies also embrace bottom-up initiatives

Directors are putting sustainability high on the agenda, but the organization is struggling to get moving. 'The problem is not in lack of ambition, but in the gap between intention and implementation.'

Every organization that is serious about sustainability knows the pattern: the boardroom endorses the urgency and formulates ambitions, but further down the organization it remains silent. Not because people don't see the importance, but because giving direction is something else than actually implementing it.

The illusion of clarity

In many boardrooms, sustainability and resilience are regular topics of conversation. The only question is: what does that mean concretely for priorities, decision-making and behavior? As long as that is not made explicit, there is room for interpretation - and thus for delay.

'There are three big stoppers for change: lack of direction and clarity, lack of capabilities and lack of motivation,' says Professor Karen Maas of the Impact Center Rotterdam. 'As long as no attention is paid to these, it will remain just words and little will change.'

Board members often overestimate how well their message lands, Maas knows. What is perceived as clear in the boardroom can feel non-committal on the work floor. Especially if goals are not translated into concrete choices, or there are no consequences for unsustainable behavior.

Where the real priority lies

'Nearly 25 years of research repeatedly shows that employees want to be more proactive than management, but often mistakenly think they are not given enough room to do so,' says Rob van Tulder, professor emeritus of International Business-Society Management and author of the book During Sustainable Business.

According to Tulder, the attitudes, ethics and behavior of top management become visible in small, daily signals. What does the MT spend time on? Which investments get the green light? What happens when sustainability clashes with short-term returns?

'We see many organizations where sustainability is high on the agenda, until time pressure or financial stress arises,' says Ulrike de Jong of sustainability consultancy TOSCA. 'That's when you see where the real priority lies: which decisions still go ahead and which don't. Employees sense that unerringly - and adjust their behavior accordingly.'

The tension of the boardroom

Why does this clarity in the boardroom itself so often fail to materialize? Not for lack of motivation, but because the boardroom is the intersection of opposing interests. Shareholders and financiers expect results, political cycles are short and costs are immediately visible, while benefits often are not.

Why is that?