Overcoming Organisational Pushbacks

Organisational pushback in a sustainability context costs organisations considerable sums in their triple bottom line performance metrics. This last chapter provides insight into some of the challenges that leaders can face when attempting to implement innovative sustainability-related projects. These may occur in various guises, such as active or passive resistance. Leaders may face pushback during sustainability change management transition programmes for familiar reasons, including fear of the unknown and a lack of trust. Such pushback can be associated with adverse behaviours that include sabotage. At the individual level, flagrant denial of responsibility must be tackled head-on. Otherwise, the change management project could get pushed into the long grass. Internal resistance may stem from entrenched positions among the leadership team, where traditional profit-centric mindsets clash with the perceived bloated costs and uncertainties associated with sustainability initiatives. Symptoms of organisational resistance are examined. The term Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) gets used, but the term comes with baggage. The bandwagon has existed for decades, but attaining diversity is not always meaningful. Staff brought in with an EDI mission can leave if lived experiences in the organisation are not in alignment. Moving beyond economic, social, and governance compliance is the final Strategy Nugget, which highlights blind spots. The final Mini Case Study, The €60 Billion Novo Nordisk Wake-Up Call, reinforces the turbulent nature of the markets.