Help CenterWhy Work Organization Might Just Be the Key to Innovation and Sustainability
Hello Friends,
I've had an epiphany I just need to chat about! Have you ever noticed how many businesses struggle to nail innovation or sustainability? I mean, these are massive, headline-dominating, super important, survival securing topics. It feels like everywhere you look, someone’s talking about them. But when the rubber meets the road, a lot of companies just... don’t.
It got me thinking after another consulting job. My role is classic: To help teams become more innovative and sustainable. It's the kind of work that gets you pumped up—workshops that end with high fives and plans to change the world. But then, I leave, and it's like all that momentum hits a wall. Despite months or years of work and a lot of training and coaching.
It’s a bummer, but the more I see it, the more I realise it’s not the people or the ideas that are lacking—it’s the space to make them happen. Teams are so overloaded with everyday tasks that there’s simply no room left for the new and potentially game-changing stuff.
When I talk about this with team leaders, everyone relates. And research shows that when employees are too busy, burnouts are on the rise and innovation takes a hit. They're just not able to engage in the kind of exploratory thinking needed to come up with new ideas. And sustainability efforts? They often require long-term investment and thinking that’s tough to do when you're stuck in the weeds of daily work.
There’s also the tale of Kodak to ponder over. They actually invented the digital camera—talk about innovation, right? But they were so wedded to their existing business model and so busy churning out film products that they missed capitalising on their own groundbreaking tech. The world changed around them, and they didn't have the organisational agility to keep up.
It's a pattern you can see in a lot of places - many companies that couldn’t pivot and embrace innovation when they needed to. In each case, it wasn’t just about a single bad decision; it was an accumulation of missed opportunities and an inability to adapt their work practices to allow for change.
And it is the same story all again when companies miss opportunities to be more sustainable: Take Forever 21, a once-dominant name in fast fashion, declared bankruptcy in 2019. The brand faced criticism for its environmental impact, including the use of cheap, non-sustainable materials and contributing to the throwaway culture due to the low durability of its products.
The brand failed to adapt its practices to incorporate more sustainable materials and processes. While competitors began to showcase sustainable lines and transparent supply chains, Forever 21 did not make significant changes to its sustainability policies, which could have positioned it more favourably with the rising demographic of environmentally conscious shoppers.
All this is why I’m convinced that the true behemoth we're facing is work organisation. It's like trying to win a relay race with your shoes tied together—no matter how fast you are, you're going to trip. If we don't figure out how to better organise our work, we're going to keep stumbling on the stuff that really counts.
Now, some businesses are getting it right. Take Google, for example. They famously implemented the 20% time policy, giving employees a day a week to work on side projects. That move gave birth to innovations like Gmail and AdSense. It shows that when companies make room for creativity and exploration, amazing things can happen.
So, what’s the takeaway? If we’re serious about innovation and sustainability, we’ve got to give them the time and space they deserve. That might mean delegating more, automating the mundane, or redefining success metrics to value long-term growth over short-term profits. And it definitely means getting clarity on roles and responsibilities as well as expectations and workloads.
I’d love to keep this conversation going. Have you seen work organisations done right (or wrong)? How’s your company tackling the big stuff while keeping the lights on?
Let's be better together!
Best,
Kai
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