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Building Green in a Black and White World-- Chapter 4

The following is an exerpt from the book Building Green in a Black and White World. Section 2; Chapter 4; Part 2; Creating the Vision

David Ritchey Johnston
January 1, 1900
HousingZone

Creating the Vision

Tom and Caroline Hoyt have created an environmentally aware company culture that has sustained them over time. McStain Enterprises has been developing unique properties and building homes in Boulder, Colorado, for 35 years. The company has become an environmental construction icon in the eyes of the public and the building industry. The Hoyts attribute much of their success to their employees’ contributions to the organization’s vision. The company’s mission statement is: "Building a better world."

Kristin Shewfelt, Director of Market Research and Environmental Programs for McStain, offers insight into developing a vision for your company. She says, "Sit down and figure out what you really want to do. What are your goals and objectives? Develop a sustainable vision for your company. Your vision provides guiding principles that you can use for years to come." Down the line when decisions need to be made, you can look to those principles to provide answers.

Sue Jordan-Kertzner,
Ron Kertzner
ChoicePoint Consulting Inc.
Boulder, Colorado

Sue Jordan-Kertzner and Ron Kertzner are CEO and president, respectively, of ChoicePoint Consulting. ChoicePoint is a consulting, coaching, and management education firm, which helps individuals and organizations create the results they truly desire. They focus on the following competencies: creating shared vision, personal mastery, collaboration, and conflict resolution, mental models, and emotional literacy.

Tom Hoyt says, "The trick is to get your whole company to buy-in to that vision. Today especially, the advantage of having that kind of outlook is that most of your employees really want more than a good job and good pay and good benefits. They want to know they've got a purpose in this world." When you make a commitment to green building, your employees feel like their job and their company are contributing to a greater purpose. It’s powerful for them, it's powerful for you, and it’s powerful for your customers. But it has been the convention in business, and especially the building business, not to think about those things, Hoyt says.

Studies show that employees today want effective leaders with a clear vision. Ron Kertzner of ChoicePoint Consultants, which provides management consulting to Fortune 100 companies, explains: “Since the 1950s the command-and-control style of leadership has been the dominant model, but now we are moving toward a more collaborative style of leadership. Employees want their CEO to say, ‘This is who we are, and this is where we are going.’ And they want to be involved in creating the vision.’ "

Sue Kertzner says, "To create a corporate vision, I would offer guidance for you, the CEO. We would sit down and figure out what your core values are, what impact you want your life to have, and what kind of legacy you want to leave with your company. Out of that thinking you would create a personal mission statement."

Once you have developed a personal mission statement, Sue says, make a list of values that would depict green for your company. Examples might include:

What does it mean to be green?

What other values are important--respect for the individual, respect for the client, respect for the environment?

How would being green change your decision-making process?

When potential customers call on the phone, what kinds of questions are you going to ask them?

Why would being green be important to both you and your customers?

Then, Sue suggests, have a round of internal "town meetings." Start talking about your vision with the rest of the company.

Continue to Buy-in and Implementation