In the final episode of the HBO series True Detective: Night Country, we saw (spoiler alert) how an Alaska Native community was forced to take extreme measures to protect their environment and people from the corporate system. The public witnessed financial, scientific, police, and local government leaders exploiting environmental, health, community safety, and mental health for short-term profit.
After days of watching, the show came to mind during a meetup I attended in Vancouver hosted by BOMA BC, an association dedicated to the commercial real estate industry. At this in-person event titled “Aligning Business Goals – Indigenous Reconciliation and ESG Reporting,” guest speaker Ken Letandre of consulting firm Strat First Inc. The audience adapts from the traditional exploitation mentality or potential “bad actor” mentality towards the customer. A service-centered culture focusing on informed relationship development first.
Listening as a stakeholder-first executive coach, I have felt the burden placed on DEI, compliance, project managers, and health and safety leaders across organizations as they attempt to influence and address the cultural shifts necessary to reach ESG goals.
They are doing so while corporate boards and executive suites have not yet culturally accepted the way forward as the new norm.
The need to evolve
According to Letander, boards have done a good job of updating their expectations for organizations “to do better to reduce poverty, ensure equity, and ensure that supply chains have sustainability components built into them.” However, in my experience with companies since the 1990s, it is often difficult for leaders to adapt to the higher and urgent expectations and needs of people and planet, or keep up with the pace of change around them. (For guidance, I suggest reading the new book Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World Written by Alison Taylor for more on this topic.)
Companies are often criticized for treating environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements as an exercise in checking out a game mentality or avoiding accountability, prioritizing short-term gains over the long-term well-being of society.
It is also depicted in the fictional narrative of True Detective: Night CountryPrioritizing corporate interests resulting in environmental and societal harm underscores the necessity of adopting emotionally intelligent approaches to achieving long-term sustainable goals.
The shift to long-term returns on investment, and a focus on societal, generational and environmental outcomes at the expense of short-term profits, is the model ESG is really looking for.
One British Columbia-based organization working to reverse engineer the traditional construction industry model is NUQO, a local company focused on affordable housing and child care for Indigenous communities. NUQO is led by my client's CEO Rory Richards, who says, “Our founding way of working is to focus on the needs of the community and stakeholders before profit. Being stakeholder first means carefully listening to the community first and building for what they need.”
Short-term goals fail societies
At the BOMA BC event, Letendre spoke about a new approach to integrating with communities, rather than seeing them as obstacles. He highlighted the high level of skepticism among some indigenous people when companies set out to achieve a short-term corporate goal. Letander stressed the need for an emotionally intelligent approach, which takes “time, listening and understanding,” he said.
It may take some time for the community to see that the company is not a transactional company. In the HBO show, data was manipulated by a mining company resulting in urgent health and safety calls and protests being ignored by the community. Off screen, Letander spoke about how companies can distort data to project an image of a clean and ethical organization during ESG reporting. Communities look for expatriates with integrity.
Letander called on business leaders to shed old patriarchal mindsets by adapting and creating real goals in partnership with society – goals that do no harm and come with a long-term commitment.
Women in leadership
The solution is complex, but possible with a shift in dynamics.
One BOMA event participant (who chose to remain anonymous) told me: “Women listen better in a world of privileged men in construction. The presence of a woman changes the tone. I usually have my female business partner with me to balance the collective male ego and I see that collaboration and results increase.” By five times what takes five meetings with men is reduced to one meeting when women can present their ideas, decisions and a practical way forward to stakeholders first.
I asked this participant what specifically women contribute and he did not hesitate with his answer. “Women bring more professionalism and we need more women in leadership roles to achieve balance.”
Richards' construction company is a case in point. NUQO is a Certified Indigenous Business and is the first all-women company with 90 percent of its employees being women.
According to ConstructConnect Canada, statistics regarding women in the workforce are improving.
“Finding women in construction is like looking for needles in a haystack. Women make up less than three percent of the construction industry. Women in leadership positions make up a tiny fraction of that 3 percent. Richards told me that it is still one of It is very rare to see women in senior leadership roles in the construction sector.
When Richards contacted a construction recruiter to find her general manager, “he flatly declined the search, saying matter-of-factly that he would never be able to find a man in construction leadership who would report to a woman.”
In contrast, another recruiter spent weeks trying to find female project managers. You can find female project coordinators, but there are very few female project managers. “Women are not progressing in construction at the same pace as their male counterparts,” she added. “Men, we have to ask ourselves why this happens.”
Letandre talks about “sharing power,” whether that is directing new people into succession planning, or enabling other parties and voices to be heard and understood. For leaders in positions of power or influence and authority, understanding how they occupy the room in minority spaces requires empathy and time to understand and master.
Hiring for diversity was met with backlash when it was pursued as a box-checking exercise during the pandemic. The fact remains that having a diverse workforce allows for mature and sustainable solutions. Creating equitable voices in construction can positively impact long-term outcomes for both society and the environment.
New approach
We cannot avoid these dynamics and issues any longer. We need to develop our mindsets through diverse thinking to solve era-defining problems together for the highest good of communities.
While some strategists may advocate a wrecking ball approach to forcefully dismantle old systems, scholars tell us that this approach unwittingly puts people in fight, flight, or protect mode.
For leaders with disproportionate power, there are many ways to understand the complex human and societal ecosystem through an active, human-centered method.
Looking to the future, the question leaders and boards should ask is not, “What is the ROI?”
The question is: “What's stopping you from understanding the human and community ecosystem better so you can do business in their community?”
Reputation and business development in the environmental, social and governance (ESG) landscape depends on being a true strategic champion and long-term investor – not a short-term transactional ally.
So, what initiative can you start today?
Caroline Stokes He is a certified executive stakeholder, business sustainability coach, and book author Elephants before rhinos (Entrepreneurship Press), co-authored a chapter for Harvard Business Review's guide to dealing with toxic workplaces And author of a chapter in Boss me! Your board of directors. Leadership advice from the best coaches in the world (Wiley). theforward.com
