This is the third of three guest columns on social intrapreneurship. The others are "Creating a Company Culture that Engages Social Intrapreneurs" and "Expanding Skills and Advancing Your Career Through Social Intrapreneurship."
If you're serious about becoming a social intrapreneur, there is no better time to start. Challenge your organization's status quo while developing and implementing solutions that both benefit the company and produce positive social and environmental impacts. Consider this column a friendly nudge to stop waiting and make a difference from where you sit in your company today.
In "Making Your Impact at Work: A Practical Guide to Saving the World from Inside Any Company" (PDF), Net Impact outlines why social intrapreneurship makes sense for you and your company even in the current economic climate. As an employee, you can gain valuable leadership skills, advance your career, and find ways to bring your ideals to work by producing concrete social, environmental and economic benefits for your organization. Companies, in turn, can gain from increased employee engagement, new market opportunities, reduced costs and waste, enhanced recruitment and retention, and a host of other benefits that come from having active social intrapreneurs amidst their ranks. [GreenBiz.com's coverage on the Net Impact Guide is available at "Net Impact Releases Guide to Make Any Job a Green Job" and "Finding the Skills to Turn a Company Green From Within."]
Maybe you're now convinced of the potential and ready to jump right in and start your own social intrapreneurship project? If so, then we wanted to share a few tips to get you started. At Net Impact, we've heard several key points repeated by successful social intrapreneurs. While these tips are not the tangible "how-to's" contained in our guide, they are important. And if you keep these points in mind, you can increase your likelihood of success and manage expectations.
Be Resilient and Persistent
Change just doesn't happen overnight, especially successful grassroots change in large companies. You might not get it right the first time. Your project may not receive funding or you might lack enthusiastic volunteers. The team of social intrapreneurs at Google who led the first GoogleServe week recommends piloting ideas before jumping into your project. A pilot phase provides the ability to be flexible and change as the project matures. GoogleServe's pilot year involved over 3,000 employees from 45 offices around the world in volunteer projects focused on the environment.
But sometimes even after an initial trial period, your coworkers might still be throwing recyclables in the trash bin. When this happens, as it inevitably will, be persistent. There are times when a lack of management support, low volunteer sign-ups, and diminished budgets confront every social intrapreneur. Expect these challenges and keep moving forward.
Staying resilient and committed pays off in the end. Take it from Lisa Neuberger-Fernandez at Accenture, who eventually received an offer for a full-time sustainability position based on her work coordinating internal green teams: " Who says that your work cannot further your personal passion and commitments? If you are creative, driven, and flexible, you will be able to find a way for your interests to converge with your job."
Balance Pragmatism with Idealism
Understand where your company currently stands and balance your view of a long-term sustainable enterprise by setting goals that you can achieve in six months or a year.
Shoshannah Lenski of BCG tells other social intrapreneurs to "focus on learning to work with your limitations -- or around them -- and concentrate on the outcomes that are going to produce real results."
Don't let the inability to achieve perfection prevent you from making progress. Maybe you would like your company to offer cash incentives for employees to take sustainable transportation, but don't let that lofty goal stand in the way of establishing a carpool program on your own today. If you're focused on creating a zero waste to landfill office, don't overlook the gains from improving your existing recycling program that can help you get there and make a real impact today.
Be Understanding
Not everyone in your company is going to be as concerned about or motivated by sustainability as you are. And many in your company may not even think that social and environmental principles apply to their work at all.
For that reason, Suzanne Henricksen of Clorox advises that "education is crucially important, so don't just surround yourself with like-minded people…bring people along for the ride by talking with them about your vision, not at them."
It's OK if not everyone is 100 percent bought-in to your goals as a social intrapreneur. Meet them where they are and help them learn about your passion and why it might make sense for them to look at a job or process from another point of view.
When she was at eBay, Hilary Sinclair did this by hosting an "open house" where she showed movies focused on sustainability and engaged colleagues in a discussion about what saving the environment really means in their jobs. By offering an open atmosphere for idea sharing and discussion as well as fresh chocolate chip cookies, she helped others understand why they might want to consider the environment in their decisions and learned more about how she could engage a broader community in her green teamwork.
Get Started Today
Whether you initiate your first lunchtime conversation with a facilities manager about turning down the office thermostat to conserve energy or present a new strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to your executive board, you can become a social intrapreneur today. Learn what works by reviewing the case studies and framework we present in Making Your Impact at Work based on the success of over a dozen social Intrapreneurs. Then set the stage for success and focus on delivering results.
The Bottom Line
In today's economic environment, your company is looking to develop new strategies for engaging employees, reducing costs, and identifying new market opportunities.
As Jason McBriarty of Levi's tells us, "don't be shy…that's the worst thing you can do. I cannot imagine any enterprise today [that] wouldn't listen to a team of employees who were smart, motivated, and passionate and could figure out a way to create a sustainability initiative that builds the bottom line."
So what are you waiting for? Get engaged and become a social intrapreneur in your job today.
And remember, if you need support in your initiative, join Net Impact and learn more about our Impact at Work program for social intrapreneurs by visiting http://www.netimpact.org/impactatwork
Josh Cleveland manages the Impact at Work program at Net Impact and was instrumental in developing "Making Your Impact at Work: A Practical Guide to Saving the World from Inside Any Company."
Frank Gehry Stairs - Image by sritenou.