SUSTAINABILITY AND LEADERSHIP IN FOCUS FOR CHANGE LEADERS IN THE NOVARE CHEETAH PROGRAM
“Being sustainable as a company is about being part of the solutions” – one of many thought-provoking quotes during the final module of the Novares Leadership Academy’s innovation program; Cheetah.
Since October, 20 senior leaders with change focus from different industries and sectors have received practical tools, new perspectives and created valuable contacts – to get new knowledge and support with their organisations transformation journeys. During three intensive days, participants and guests – experts and business leaders – gathered for the final workshops and exchange of experience in the final module with ’leading in change’ and sustainability on the agenda. A majority of the participants were physically present at Görväln Castle and some participated digitally.
Sustainability in focus
On the theme of sustainability, the group reviewed the “17 Sustainability Lessons for Leaders” – concrete lessons that we at Novare Leadership Academy developed within the framework of one of our leadership programs and in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (which will be launched shortly). Kristina Tjäder, co-founder and head of sustainability at House of Dagmar and participant in the program and Anna Skarborg, who is COO at Canucci, were present to discuss the lessons learned.
“What is your legacy as a leader? What are you going to tell your grandchildren?”
“Being sustainable as a company is about being part of the solutions. And your your role as a leader is not to know, but to know who to collaborate and partner up with” said Anna Skarborg.
“I believe the most important thing to succeed with sustainability is lesson number one, to lead with a sustainable vision”, Kristina Tjäder from Dagmar finished.
Another speaker was Pontus Cornelius, CEO of the Ernström Group and responsible for their Climate Impact. Pontus showed research in the climate area and shared valuable tips on how to drive the business forward with sustainability issues in focus. He also highlighted valuable long-term perspectives – that what we do for the next 50 years will affect the next 10,000 years – and that we as a society are currently in a huge transformation.
“Our generation is living in parallel industrial revolutions. The 5th industrial revolution is the Eco Economy. It’s such a shift that we should call it just “The Eco Revolution”
“The digital transformation is brain-driven. The sustainability transformation is heart-driven”
New perspectives on future of leadership and change management
In addition to sustainability issues, change management was also discussed from different perspectives. We were visited by Siri Wikander, People Growth Expert & sought after speaker in learnability, leadership and agile HR. She shared the importance of being a learning-organization and concrete tips for how you as a leader can work with, among other things, agile learning and “nano-learning”. Agile working methods and lessons learned about it was also the theme for a session with Lars Eklöf, Vice President, Motor Vehicle Industry Division, at Atlas Copco – a 140-year-old company that has implemented agile working methods. Lars Eklöf shared valuable experiences and stated that “the trick of being agile is to get people with different skills to work better together”.
To understand the next generation’s perspective on the labor market, leadership, learning and sustainability issues, three young people from Brainpool and the association’s co-founder Stina Boman Wittich were invited.
“Brainpool gives especially talented young people space to share and develop great ideas together with each other, inspirers, visionary companies and academic institutions.” began Stina.
“Culture and organizational structure are connected – it’s not two alternatives. The structure must support the culture, for the culture to work. Many fail because they don’t take this into account”
Erik Ringertz, CEO of Netlight Consulting was the last speaker. He has been praised several times for his humane leadership based on trust and is used to talking about how he and his colleagues created a unique culture and organizational structure at Netlight – a company without managers.
“The attitude we’re trying to nurture is to be a role model. Start with being a role model for yourself and then others will see you as a role model as well ”
He shared thoughts from his book “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger”, a book that questions the norms of how a company should be organized and managed. “The essence of my book is the idea of organizing organically instead of mechanically”
Concrete actions to reach the next step on the transformation journey
In addition to these esteemed guest speakers, the participants had to work on their own transformation challenges and finally formulate “Five Bold Cheetah Leaps” – their actions for the future based on lessons and tools from the Cheetah program. Some concrete actions and insights from the participants:
- “I will drive my transformation with passion and be my own role model”
- “Form a speed boat team – let a few people in the organization focus on a specific task to increase speed and agility”
- “I will leverage the tools I have learnt during the program”
- “Focus more on sustainability to make us more relevant to customer and employees”
- “Build a network of ambassadors supporting the change”
- “Get a better understanding of our customer journey and their pain points”
- “Focus more on machine learning, AI and automation”
Want to know more about the Cheetah program?
A new round of the Cheetah program starts in November and this year we will put extra focus on driving transformation / change with a focus on sustainability, among other things through our collaboration with The World Economic Forum. The target group for the program is senior change leaders, previous participants represent both large global companies and smaller Swedish companies and organizations. Read more about the Cheetah Sustainable Innovation Program at novare.se/cheetah and feel free to contact us if you want to know more!
