Profit And Benefits From Planning For Sustainability

Change happens so fast now that no organisation can be profitable and sustainable in the long-term unless it ensures that it makes a positive contribution to the world of the future.

Those that do so discover a range of unexpected opportunities (ask Sir Richard Branson about that!).

The opportunities of change

Mega Planning, the invention of Roger Kaufman, Professor Emeritus, Florida State University, is a structured process to ensure societal and environmental outcomes. It begins at the top of the enterprise and involves people at every level. Developed over 40 years, it has become the business imperative today.

Why does success require that our contribution to society be positive?

Because society itself is increasingly demanding it, and those who offer nothing positive are eventually squeezed out - they become irrelevant, they have no place (consider the difficulties now being felt by those who placed their bets on petroleum hungry cars).

Meanwhile those who insist on contributing positively find themselves innovating in the face of new challenges, staying ahead of the competition, and leading the way towards new solutions - and profits.

Australian example: Toyota, while following a full environmental and community plan and winning Victorian Government, UN and Banksia awards (2005), managed to save itself AU$750,000 and continue to increase profits and market share.

Who creates the future?

Everything that an individual does creates a part of that future in which we and others must live. Anything an organisation does today creates the future in which it must operate tomorrow. Its relevance and even its survival will depend on society wanting its products, and this will be largely determined by the support it gives to the societal life-support system within which it operates.

The question is frequently asked "How can we be sure that an organisation is really contributing to society and the environment?". The idea of the ‘good corporate citizen' was based on the concept of giving back some of the profit and not inflicting damage. Companies gave to local charities, usually with sincerity, and showed they cared. With the same logic, the tobacco companies sponsored sports to show how much they cared.

In a confusing picture that invites scepticism, it is necessary to find some criterion that we can agree on. Decades of research in Mega Planning prove that there is one thing that people of all nations, races and religions care about: it is the world in which their children must live. We can take this opportunity and plan to create the vision for which people everywhere show support - the 'World for Tomorrow's Child', trialled on five continents.

Within this Vision lie the ways to future success. Mega Planning is a thoroughly integrated and surprisingly simple planning process that takes people from the initial Ideal Vision right down to the nuts and bolts of what each team or individual does to achieve results.

Here is an Ideal Vision that we can all start from:

"The World for Tomorrow's Child will be one of opportunity for people to live out their lives to the fullest potential while giving support, or at least doing no harm, to others and the environment".

Idealistic? Only if you expect to get there tomorrow! Not measurable? Yes, it can be very well measured. Here are some ways: Avoidable deaths... zero. Accidents, disease, crime, violence, incarceration, reduction of species, pollution, use of non-renewable resources... all zero. And on the positive side: happiness, wellbeing, trust... all high (and these are factors currently being measured by global surveys).

"If your organisation is not contributing to the future you want for tomorrow's child - then what is it doing?"

We call this Kaufman's question. Everything that your organisation does, uses and produces can fit within this Ideal Vision. Maybe not right now, but you can aim for it and you can talk about it and demonstrate what you are doing to contribute to a sustainable future.

Partnering with your stakeholders

Mega Planning leads naturally to partnership with your clients, suppliers, staff and other stakeholders because all parties can begin from a shared vision. In taking this approach you immediately raise challenges to how you operate and find yourself face to face with the untapped opportunities of the future. As you develop these, you ensure that both you and your clients are ahead of the field, proactive to regulation and offering much more than just the initially stated requirements of a project or a tender.

Within a company or a government entity, Mega Planning gets people excited about what they are doing and engenders their loyalty. It promotes a change of perspective and culture as they begin to understand and trust that they are contributing to a future that they personally want. Staff become the enthusiastic voices that spread the word about what you are doing, and what it means.

Proving your contribution

Only by working from a Mega framework can we prove and justify our contribution to society and the environment on a continuing basis while maintaining profitability. These are not just the gifts to clubs and charities that inevitably depend on political fluctuations and fashions and come and go with the strength of the bottom line. They are the whole output (and input) of the organisation.

One of the many tools that Mega Planners use to make their case is a cost/consequence analysis. Use it and compare the cost of operating from a Mega Plan versus the cost of not doing so. The benefits and savings that come to light far outweigh any initial costs.

Start-up Mega Planning - the ‘how to'

To make the process as easy, practical and beneficial as possible, we went back to Roger Kaufman's original, core writings on Mega Planning. Beginning there, we developed ‘Start-up Mega Planning' - recently published by the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), an organisation established in countries around the world.

Here's how Start-up Mega takes you through the process:

Review and approve the Ideal Vision and its measures. Add to it anything of your own if you wish that does not contradict it.
Choose that part of it towards which you will contribute and decide what measures you will use (for SMEs, much of this could be quite local - such as community health, education, employment...). These are your Objectives at the Mega Level.
Decide how you will know when you are being successful. Think beyond just the bottom line, consider customer confidence, reputation, community support... These are your Objectives at the Macro Level (through which you will achieve your Objectives at the Mega Level).
To reach these Macro Objectives (embedded in and congruent with your Mega Objectives) what must your teams and individuals achieve? These are your Micro Level Objectives.
Only now do you consider what actions, processes and activities you will require to meet these Objectives. This is the Process Level of your Mega Plan.
What inputs - human, material and financial resources will you require? This is the Input Level.

Now you have it, it's as easy as that! In using it, you are even obliged to plan effectively, starting from the outcome you want and rolling down to the activities you require to reach it (not the other way round, as many do!). The process gives you a living document that everyone in the company can understand and use, and that is continually subject to update and change as new circumstances and opportunities arise.

The number of Mega Planners around the Globe is growing. However, most organisations still rarely plan above the Micro level. Those that reach Macro often look at just the ‘bottom line'. If this is your case, don't despair! Mega Planning quickly shows you where your current operation fits, where its future may be at risk, and what you could do about that - and with this, there comes into view the opportunities that will take you into a successful future!

Case Study

Woods Bagot Defence Consulting

Woods Bagot is an international architectural design and consulting firm providing design and project management solutions to both public and private sector. The company has grown and been successful over 135 years. It has offices in the capital cities of Australia, and in Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and London. In 1994, the company obtained ISO 9001 accreditation.

Peter Hoskins is Manager of the Defence Consulting Division - providing strategic planning, project management and related services in the areas of capital works and facilities management. He began Start-Up Mega Planning with a one-day workshop in November 2002. It was in the second workshop of April of 2003 that the ideas hit home and the Team began to understand the benefits.

In the interview that follows, Peter Hoskins describes the experience of introducing Start-Up Mega Planning to his business.

Preparation

We all began to see the simplicity of it. As we go through our own planning in advance, we describe the client's situation as it is now (the what is), we describe clearly the future that we want (the results/payoffs - the desired outcome or what should be) and we don't talk about the Means (how we will get there) until we are clear about the gaps in results to be closed. By focusing first on the outcome or Mega level - the broad societal and external clients' results that we are aiming for - we steer everyone in our team right away from the more conventional starting point: the means and resources that are going to be required. We also define how we are going to measure our results (our Measures and Indicators).

Meeting with the client

Our next step is to meet with the client and workshop the same thing, and it is apparent that we have a clear agreement between us about what they will have at the end of the work, and how they will measure it and ensure that they really got delivery.

As we go through this process with them, we sort the results they want into Mega, Macro and Micro. In the past, the client would have jumped straight to the nuts and bolts - how were we going to do it, how much would it cost and where could we cut costs. Now, as they think through the Mega level with us, they realise that in practice a lot of it is in areas in which they are legally obliged to comply.

Mega with the public sector

For our Australian Defence contracts, the basic areas they have to consider are:

Environment - many Defence properties are of significant environmental value, and Government requires sound environmental management.
Heritage - many Defence facilities are in old buildings with historic worth to our nation, and culture that must be protected for both the learning and the pleasure of future generations.
Safety - a key issue e.g. death or illness from asbestos, spread of disease, workplace OH&S. In general, the health and well-being of all stakeholders (Defence personnel, contractors and the community) must be considered.
Equity - Defence is an EEO employer and also must consider community issues and the needs and wants of other stakeholders - equity of results and consequences for all parties involved.
Security - here we have to think both global and local, so that we are not under the "custody, or control of another person, agency..." (Kaufman's Minimum Ideal Vision).
Defence capability - we are seeking to protect the peace.

All of these contribute, if properly managed, to our Ideal Vision of the Future, and make up the questions that have to be thought through before we can do anything.

We then move on to Macro, success measures for the client, and then to Micro, the objectives that the client groups and individuals must attain in order to succeed at the Macro and Mega levels. We make sure that the three levels are aligned.

Talking about Means

Once we have done all that, we talk Means with the client: first the Processes they will use and then the Inputs they will require. We have a simple structure that describes exactly what they will get, what will be required, and that guarantees and measures results at every stage. Both they and we can prove that there is value for money for all stakeholders involved.

The private sector

The approach has been equally successful for us in the private sector. The aviation industry, for example is bound by a large number of regulations, including health and safety (Mega contributions). This results in the necessity of gaining agreement between human resources and industrial relations areas.

In addition, there is a requirement to develop facilities without interrupting the flow of passengers, something that would negatively impact on sales. As economy airlines come into existence, the quality of service for full fare-paying customers becomes even more important (Macro). Security is also an issue and workers must not be able to enter secure passenger areas (Mega).

In the case of Darwin International Airport in the Northern Territory, there is an additional factor in that runways must be shared with military aircraft, and markings have to be managed correctly. These two examples show results at all three Levels of planning.

Bringing it together

Once the issues are identified, we take them along to a Stakeholder Workshop and have everyone think through the part of it that concerns them. When we have the objectives all clearly defined, we have a framework that we can give to the designers and say "Now give us your idea of how you can create these results".

Since we took up this approach fully, we have found that all the bits and pieces of project and design work that used to lie around unconnected and unresolved suddenly have a place and a priority. The approach gives real insight into what has to be achieved, and is a great way of communicating to contractors and suppliers what they have to do. In quality terms, we create an ‘agreed plan' and work to it. Or we can see where we should add to it.

It is worth noting that for most of the companies working in our field, the submission (response to tender) is thrown away as soon as the tender is won, and then there follows long and difficult discussions about what are the best processes to use. Instead the submission becomes the plan, containing the restraints and opportunities, and the measures of results to be achieved. This provides a valuable framework for performance evaluation at a time when our clients are moving towards formal performance reporting.

It has been really interesting to discover, as we map out work with our clients, that Mega often turns out to be almost one half of the project! Instead of it being something we have to find space for to fit in at the end, it becomes the set of drivers for the entire project. At the end of the day, it is as much ‘good project management' as it is socially and environmentally responsible.

Peter Hoskins from Woods Bagot Defence Consulting describes some of the results from implementing Start-up Mega Planning in his business.

Measurable results

Critical to success of the process has been the holding of workshops with clients, suppliers and other stakeholders in order to agree to objectives at each level. Response from these groups has been very positive. Furthermore, having agreed our objectives at the Mega level, everything else falls into place - including the "how" (Process) and the "how much" (Inputs) that used to have the most immediate attention.

Although the approach is relatively recent for us, some results from projects can already be reported as follows:

Project to identify a new Army training area in Western Australia:
- Community concerns and environmental restraints were identified first in order to meet objectives at the Mega level.
- This led to increased cooperation between the three levels of government - Federal, State and Local (Mega and Macro objectives).
- A key discriminator was discovered - proximity to hospital support - that had not been recognised by the client - meeting safety objectives at the Mega level.
Country Fire Authority of State of Victoria
- Potential savings of 20% of fire station construction costs through focusing on identification of delivery of useful services - rather than on equipment and building requirements (Mega and Macro objectives).
- Work practices identified as the most significant impediment to reduced building costs. In this case, the solution is long-term (Mega, Macro and Micro objectives) with resources saved available for investment in other areas.
Property redevelopment for Department of Defence at the historic Randwick Barracks site in Sydney
- Planning process considered Mega and Macro objectives to identify the needs of community and local council stakeholders. This resulted in a cost saving of between AU$5 and 8 million by:
  - avoiding conflict when the project was submitted to the State Land & Environment Court for approval, and
  - capital works savings.

Closing thoughts

Using the Start-Up approach, the Woods Bagot Defence Consulting team is doing so much Mega Planning now that there are moments when we ask ourselves "Are we really doing this? It's so simple. It's all just a process!". And of course, it is just a process, a way of thinking that sorts everything into a usable order and priorities, gets everyone the results they wanted, benefits both the company and its clients, and aims towards the Ideal Vision - the World for Tomorrow's Child - that we all want.

References
Case Western Reserve University (2001-2006). Appreciative Inquiry Commons. http://ai.cwru.edu/
Forbes, R. (1998). The two bottom lines - let's start to measure. In The Quality Magazine. August 1998, pp. 17-19. Australian Quality Council.
Humphries, E., & Forbes, R. (1993). The challenge of mandated organisational change. Qualcon Australia (National Convention Australian Organisation for Quality), Conference Proceedings. Sept, 1993, pp. 237-250.
Kaufman, R. (1972). Educational system planning. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Kaufman, R (1992). Strategic planning plus: an organizational guide. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Ronald Forbes, PhD and Dylan Forbes, BSc Psych (Hon.) are Co-directors of Leaderskill Group Pty Ltd, Australia, founded by Ronald in 1978. They have facilitated programs in Mega Planning and their 360 Facilitated® feedback process in private and public sector organizations, and have accredited facilitators in many countries. Details and published papers can be found at www.360facilitated.com and www.360facilitated.com/megaplanning/, or via ronfo@leaderskill.com.au or dylan@leaderskill.com.au. They can be reached at +61 2 9533 7077. A case study including results achieved in using Start-Up Mega Planning is available upon request.

Peter Hoskins, BE (Civil), MBA has 25 years experience in engineering consulting. He is Manager of Woods Bagot's Defence Consulting Division and of Defence and Security within Woods Bagot: http://www.woodsbagot.com.au/. He can be reached via: peter.hoskins@woodsbagot.com.au or +61 2 9249-2550

First published: 12 October 2006.
Last updated: 12 October 2006.