The Planet is in Trouble. What’s Your Organization Doing to Help?

The UN set an ambitious humanitarian goal. But they can’t achieve it alone.

 

Come learn what leading executives are doing to help the UN fulfill the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Last September, the United Nations set an ambitious global humanitarian agenda by establishing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a list of 17 goals meant to improve the lives of people around the world over the next 15 years. Accomplishing these goals, which includes ending poverty, eliminating hunger, and achieving gender equality, among other things, is a colossal task, and one that will require the cooperation and dedication of people from organizations beyond the United Nations and member countries. Join us on September 27th at 12:30 pm EST for a lively discussion with members from four organizations who are actively making an impact toward the fulfillment of these goals. We are honored to have the following panelists: Dawn Rittenhouse, Director of Sustainable Development for DuPont; Mark C.Weick, Director, Sustainability and Enterprise Risk Management at Dow Chemical; Dr. David S. Wilkie, Executive Director, Conservation Measures and Communities at the Wildlife Conservation Society; and Norine Kennedy, Vice President, Environment, Energy and Strategic International Engagement at the United States Council for International Business (USCIB). Find out what their organizations are doing to make a difference, and why committing to the help fulfill these 17 goals makes good business sense. Register Here!

The three types of people every organization needs

I wanted to share information on my upcoming Webinar, The Three Types of Individuals Every Organization Needs, on September 13^th at 12:30 EST.  During this webinar, I’ll take an in-depth look at three critical roles within the vital organization: That of explorer, executor, and boundary spanner. I’ll explain why each is important, and discuss how to identify employees who fit a particular type.

The research for the Webinar comes directly from Creating the Vital Organization: Balancing Short-Term Profits with Long-Term Success, which I co-authored with one of my partners and OV Vice President, Dr. Scott Brooks. Scott, along with our consultant Victoria Hendrickson, will join me for this webinar.

I hope you can join me next Tuesday.

Register for our upcoming complimentary Webinars:

The Three Types of Employees Every Organization Needs on September 13^th.

Organizations and the SDGs: Why Doing Good is Good Business on September 27^th.

Also check out Creating the Vital Organization, available in every online bookstore.

Evaluate your Vitality with free assessments and reports here.

 

Organizations and the SDGs: Why Doing Good is Good Business

 

By Walter Reichman

The world’s humanitarian crisis is rapidly growing, with billions of people around the globe lacking basic necessities like clean water, nutritious food, and access to education and employment opportunities. Last September, the United Nations (UN) addressed this crisis by identifying 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at improving the lives of people and the health of our planet over the next 15 years. Some of these goals include giving people access to clean water, nutritious food, education, and employment opportunities.

These goals are bold and ambitious, and will take more than just the United Nations to make them happen. Thankfully, practicing sustainable business habits often makes good business sense as well, and more organizations are already investing in the health and well-being of the global community.

MasterCard is working to make the financial system more accessible to more than 150 million people around the world. Merck is developing programs to reduce deaths of women during pregnancy and childbirth. Microsoft is developing cost effective connectivity to the internet for schools and communities in Africa. Walmart is providing opportunities for small businesses with less than 10 million in annual revenue that aim to empower women, and IBM is helping to develop a scorecard that measures a city’s resilience to a natural disaster.

This is just a small sample of corporations that are actively working to improve the lives of people around the world through smart business practices. To better understand the importance of this work, OrgVitality is sponsoring a panel Webinar entitled Organizations and SDGs: Why Doing Good is Good Business on Tuesday, September 27^th at 12:30 EST. The Webinar will present representatives of four organizations that have made an active commitment to the achievement of these goals: The United States Council for International Business, Dow Chemical, DuPont, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

In this webinar, executives of these four organizations will describe their programs, explain how and why they were initiated and are promoted within their organization, and discuss the benefits to the organization and to the world at large.

OrgVitality has been supportive of the activities of the United Nations since the inception of the firm. I have been the main NGO representative to the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN from the International Association of Applied Psychology since 2004. At ECOSOC, I, along with other representatives, are tasked with presenting position papers that are based upon psychological theory, research, and practice for commissions, committees, and deliberations. The position papers are translated into the various member languages and distributed to the delegations involved in the deliberations. Additionally, we hold “side events” during commission meetings where psychologists present their information. Finally, we also work to share information about the UN and its activities with our own organizations and members, which I aim to do through this Webinar discussion.

As psychologists, we have a responsibility to help fulfill the SDGs. The people most affected by this work are extremely vulnerable. Psychologists worked with the UN to develop the list of SDGs, and will continue to play a role, especially in regards to helping to change government activities, as well as monitoring and measuring the implementation of the goals. We have submitted papers to the Statistical Division of the UN with our suggestions for measuring the implementation, and we are contributing to the determination of the “indicators” of the implementation. Over the next 15 years, the UN will be issuing reports on the level of implementation worldwide, within regions, and within nations. Hopefully, the success of the implementation will motivate countries to progress even further.

At OrgVitality, we believe that part of our counsel to clients must incorporate a sense of their place in the larger global community, and we are proud of our work helping many clients fulfill their missions. This Webinar is a follow-up to an event we co-sponsored at the UN during the annual Psychology Day meeting; at this event, 40 OrgVitality clients and staff members toured the UN and attended discussions on the global migration crisis.

The achievement of the SDGs will improve the lives of all people and reduce the probability of conflict among people and nations. The goals can only be realized with a strong commitment to global partnership and cooperation among governments, business organizations and not -for-profit organizations. Please join us for the webinar which will describe how the partnership and cooperation can be achieved. Register Here.