"My staff is lazy"

Actually, my staff is brilliant, tireless, and incredibly productive (Michelle, Scott, everyone, I love ya). But the impulse to think "my staff is lazy" is one of the symptoms of overload in organizations.  Understanding overload -- and effectively addressing the problems it creates -- may ultimately be the key to saving the planet.

At MIT Sloan's first conference on strategies for sustainable business practices, Professor Rebecca Henderson gave an inspiring (and very humorous) presentation on why organizations get stuck and stay stuck. See the video and other conference materials at:

http://mitsloan.mit.edu/sustainability/ilp.php

Drawing on 20 years' experience working with large organizations, she cited examples any manager can relate to, from wearing overload as a badge of honor, to the soul-killing and productivity-destroying loops that result from constant fire-fighting. 

Highlighting emerging cross-disciplinary work with several MIT Sloan colleagues, she outlined not only the perils of overload (and why they're so intractable) but also what can be done about them -- and why it will be heartening and even fun.

Today's sustainability challenges affect more than the environment: they show up in problems of economic development and social justice and, yes, our own personal lives.  But global warming is the best known high-stakes challenge of sustainability, and the clock is ticking rapidly.  Organizations need to get unstuck and fast.

Fortunately, the challenges of sustainability also provide huge opportunities: opportunities for new businesses and business models, opportunities for new ways of thinking and for having new kinds of conversations with one another.  At the conference, participants heard stirring examples of initiatives that are working, from empowering business practices that improve lives and profits at Nike to mind-spinning possibilities from advances in materials and infrastructure.  The work being done by Professor Henderson and her colleagues brings it all home: to our work and our daily lives, and how we all benefit when we can bring more of our whole selves to the office.

I came away from the conference inspired and incredibly proud to be a part of MIT Sloan, where some of the finest minds are helping solve some of the world's most pressing problems and create extraordinary new opportunities -- all with great thoughtfulness, wit, and humanity.  I'd say more, but ... I have a few fires I have to fight right now.

- Posted by Tracy Carlson