Imagine you had 30 minutes with 4 renowned CEOs in front of several hundred business practitioners and you wanted to use the time to create change in the audience. What would you do? I recently had the opportunity and here is what happened!

At the Swiss Green Economy Symposium, the largest event among sustainability enthusiasts in the German speaking part of Switzerland, I could facilitate a CEO panel. I had about six months to prepare which was necessary given the busy agenda of the CEOs. I contacted more than a dozen to have a confirmed gender balanced panel of 4 CEOs. One of the female CEOs had confirmed early and said she would participate with one condition: that there would be at least as many women on the panel as men. What a great condition! Imagine how things would shift if all women (and men) would demand this!

I wanted to create a panel that would serve as a trigger for change in the audience rather than a the usual story-telling inspiration sharing success stories of their organizations. Would I be able to convince the CEOs to give up the opportunity to position their company in front of an attractive audience in service of creating a space where change could happen in the audience? Yes, imagine that. CEOs were open to that idea, once I shared my idea with them and had talked them through the concept. Wonderful!

We split the 30 minutes in three parts. After a short introduction where I framed the conversation with a simple concept (see figure 1), we started the first part. Each CEO shared a personal story illustrating the question: “which challenges have influenced them personally and how have these shaped the way you are leading your organization?” As the audience collectively leaned forward, topics such as gender stereotypes, work-place injustice, product waste and power abuse were discussed with courage and vulnerability. I invited the packed auditorium to take moment and to individually reflect on what has shaped them most in your past and how this influences their priorities at work. Both in terms of what they currently do and what they wish you were doing. People came to me afterwards and said they have never experienced a room so quiet and so focused. The magic was starting.

In a second round, we had selected only two of the four CEOs share examples of what issues were challenging their organization in this VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world and what long-term business opportunities were emerging concerning the Sustainable Development Goals? To grant time to the audience, the generosity of the other CEOs to stand back was really touching. We were one and we had one common objective! I invited the audience to turn to their neighbor and to discuss what options their saw to implement change for their organizations to embed the SDGs into their strategy. On a background slide, I shared a support website for those needing help. The room exploded. Everybody talked and shared and exchanged. We sat in our chairs with our jaws wide open. What an energy in the room. And how were we going to get them back to listening to us? When the time was up, the CEOs and I spontaneously stood up together and loudly applauded the audience. They look up and stared at us in surprise. They stopped talking and we could continue.

In the last round, all CEOs shared which issue concerned them most in our society and where they saw opportunities to connect these to future business activities? Their stories addressed the top burning societal issues of Switzerland as addressed by the Gapframe: CO2 overuse, equal opportunity, sustainable consumption, social integration and clean energy. I invited the audience to take a moment and choose one action that they could implement in the next 3 days to close the gap of where we are today vs. where they thought we should be in an area important for them. I offered an online tool to share these actions, if anybody felt like it.

I wish we had more time at the end, the final reflection was a minute shorter than I had hoped but our 30 minutes were up. Nonetheless, I was happily surprised when I discovered the personal commitments coming in. Figure 2 provides an overview of them grouped into some categories I hope are helpful in reviewing.

Role modelling I commit to dedicate my working time to a project that serves 100% to make our living more sustainable Lead a topic coming out of SGES 2017 I will define my personal SDG‘s to be achieved by the end of 2018 Break the barriers, create sense of urgency and implement the much needed change Prepare presentation about the legal implications of a meat tax as a ghg heavy good Encouraging others for action Communicate knowledge to peers As corny as it may sound: foremost change minds I commit to also encourage others to live more sustainably Talk with my Patents about their travelling Poll others on these questions Roll out the sdgxchange in a world wide level Make my sons understand that they also have a big responsibility for Equal Opportunity and that they must contribute to achieving it Community building Organize a non-hierarchical roundtable for a common sustainable mindset within my organization and outside Partner to strengthen the capability to act Launch SDSN Switzerland on 2 Nov, the network that mobilizes the Swiss research & innovation community for the SDGs Keep engaging people for a sustainable future I’ll ask my fellow Entrepreneurs how they care about Sustainability! And I’ll publish it later on! Organize the startups around me in a matrix to share sustainability progress More time for the soul Slow down. I will lower my expectations towards myself and spend more time speaking with my employees I will observe better! Aligning corporate sustainability goals with national priority issues Identify lacks in our sustainability goals by comparing them with the topic of gapframe.org Build our new 150kW PV project in Bern – Solarify Verity the strategic goals of my organization against the Agenda2030 for Sustainable Development and adapt if needed I will create a personal project on how we can introduce GTDs with local partners and stakeholders in our projects worldwide Make sure that we also talk about social innovations. Apply the standard for sustainable construction (SNBS) in the area of buildings Social integration action Partner up to reach higher employee diversity (age, gender, education, etc.) I would like to support employees who lost their jobs with improving their skill-set and find a new opportunity or career path. Transparency and equality Reducing the CO2 consumption (Switzerland’s no 1 sustainability issue) Only travel by train to destinations in Europe (always!) Rain or shine, I’ll bike to work. I commit to eating only very little meat and buy organic food, to fly as little as possible and compensate my flights Compensate my flight No more elevator – taking the steps, staying fit and saving energy Exchange my diesel into an electric car Conscious Consuming Cook local Eating less meat Renovate our old Windows in order to create more insolation Commit to an organic “vegetable-abo” in order to support sustainable and local agriculture. Before I buy something, to ask: what is the harm when I buy this?

Figure 2: List of shared personal commitments as a result of a 30 minute transformative CEO panel

I don’t think I have ever spent so much time preparing for a 30 minute intervention. I think I spent 30 hours, or 60 times the intervention time, in preparation. I needed not only prepare the CEOs, I also needed to get the organizer onboard. Among the CEOs, we had spent two months carefully scripting each statement of each person so that we could create an overall story that would hopefully allow a change in the audience. This resulted in a 3500 word document that everybody had approved, outlining minute by minute who would say what. If you attempt something similar, ensure you have plenty of lead-time available! It is worth it though!

Author: Katrin Muff, PhD

Active in thought leadership, consulting & applied research in sustainability & responsibility, and directing the DAS & DBA programs