I you haven’t noticed, we’ve just held the first ever “We Work Global Goals” conference – and it was amazing! A big thanks to all who attended; speakers, helpers and supporters – our friends at The danish Society of Engineers and #iloveGlobalGoals.
We will definitely make this a recurring conference on top of our smaller, more frequent events. So don’t despair if you missed this one, more will come.
During the next couple of days we will circle back to the day, and give you in-depth recaps of what was said and thought by our brilliant speakers. Here’s the info on the event.
I was inspired by 4 key points, that I have elaborated on further, below:
1: Get out of the closet
The sustainability and impact discussion is still in its infancy. Which is a great thing, since there’s so much more we can do, and so many more to be influenced. The only way to fuel this success and momentum, is to keep talking about it. You might feel like a hippie, but most likely your thoughts will resonate deeply with your friends, when you start the discussion – at least that is what I have found.
We hope that conferences like WeWorkGlobalGoals is the right forum for marrying hardcore corporates with purpose-driven changemakers. By taking impact serious, and giving it a nice business suit, we believe we can make real change in the wider business world.
2: The corporates get it
When I started impactful Jobs, I was pretty sure that the millennials would get the message. After-all, it was a 1:1 response to my own problem and mindset. I hadn’t guessed that the corporates also got the message, and was squarely on the same page. From big to small and across industries, they have realised that money and social responsibility are linked – especially in relation to talent acquisition and retention.
That said, there’s still some way between intend and action. Interestingly, recent studies show that top management and millennials have remarkably similar opinions in regards to corporate social and sustainable responsibility. Whereas the generations in-between are still lacking behind. It’s a tendency that is strongly confirmed by our own experience. Especially Charlotte Ersbøll talked about this, read more here.
3: Hippie + Yuppie = Yippee!
The brilliant play on words came from Kristian Dickow of Foresight Energy and climate, a self confessed Yippee. Kristian talked about his own journey from money hungry business school graduate, to now, where he is building a super impactful (and incredibly beautiful) sustainable magazine, where his personal budget is tight, but the gut feeling is right. His message; do good and be happy.
I think his point is extremely important in the impact world, where you’ll often be confronted by blame and guilt. But being sustainable, helping the world or others just simply makes you feel good, and that should be a key reason for doing it in itself. This notion should be the core of the future of work.
4: We are the impactful ones
Lastly and most importantly. It’s easy to blame management when you don’t find your job impactful. But really they are only setting the frame of your day-to-day activities. It’s you who makes the difference. As an engineer, it’s you who makes the decision whether the product should be clued or snatched together (it’s a subtle, but big difference), and you who choose to fight for it. Or as a designer, it’s you who puts sustainability first in the creative brainstorm. Or as a business strategist, it’s you who take a few minutes extra to consider if there’s a circular business opportunity. Or as a HR-recruiter, it’s you that can suggest the more sustainability inclined profile for the job.
Realising this, is the key to changing the world. Realising that we all have huge impact and then choose to exercise this ability as often as possible. Doing the opposite is just lazy, and totally uncool – not yippee at all.
That’s it. I’ll be returning to each of the subject, and more in the following weeks as we’ll continue to recap on We Work Global Goals 2018.
hi5, Lars