BY LISA TAYLOR
Instead of focusing on what we do, we should focus on what impact we have and how we know.
In 2012, less than a year after Challenge Factory’s founding, I attended my first Cannexus, one of the largest career development conferences in the world. Career development is a hidden sector in Canada. It is comprised of the practitioners, organizations, and academics who help Canadians in areas related to careers, work, and learning across the entire lifespan.
At that very first introduction to the career development sector, I was caught off-guard by the perception of a divide between private sector and non-profit/education sector organizations. Over time, however, I would learn why this divide exists and gain a much deeper appreciation for why initial reactions to Challenge Factory as a business were met with skepticism.
Members of the career development sector are not unique in assuming that the sole purpose of business is to generate profit, but the assumption that this purpose prevents for-profit organizations from contributing to the public good is limiting. Ultimately, this assumption is outdated and unhelpful. For-profits are equally capable of positively impacting their communities, and non-profits don’t always make the difference they strive for.
In this article, let’s explore how to create space for impact-driven work that helps organizations thrive, fosters collaboration between sectors, and leads to a better future for all.
Our shift to impact thinking
Having come from the corporate technology sector, I was very familiar with the cocktail party networking and relationship-building that met me at Cannexus12. I was not familiar with the “good guy-bad guy” perception that positioned non-profit and educational organizations in one camp and private sector organizations in the other, especially since the feeling in the room at that first event was that I fell into the “bad guy” camp.
I know now that my good intentions at Cannexus12 were interpreted as infiltration. In a sector where many career development practitioners work at non-profit organizations and focus on helping underserved clients, I had not yet proven we shared common values.
The contribution of businesses to the well-being of all their stakeholders—people, communities, the environment, shareholders, and society as a whole—is a complicated topic. Thankfully, the days when a business’ financial performance was the only measurement of success valued by its leaders and shareholders are fast disappearing. Shifts in stakeholder needs, values, and demands are pushing businesses to transform in profitable ways that benefit everyone.
In my Virtual Fireside Chat with Alastair MacFadden, the former Saskatchewan Deputy Minister and current Interim Director at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy highlighted that the purpose of career development has nothing to do with specific fields, sectors, or even interventions used in the work. The purpose and value are the impact of the work—and that impact needs to be understood, measured, and communicated.
To be sure, businesses do have a profit motive. Our survival is based on our ability to continually and profitably provide products and services that meet market needs. But today’s consumers have many needs that go beyond the delivery of goods and services. They want to know more about the culture and people behind the businesses they buy from. What matters is the impact.
How ethical are their practices? How does sustainability factor into production options? How diverse is their team or inclusive is their culture? What are all the reasons they should buy from one business versus another?
It’s no longer good enough to have quality products or services. Consumers are looking for businesses with values that mirror their own or even challenge them to do better. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations are among the top three drivers that affect whether the public will trust a business, buy from it, recommend it to others, and give it the benefit of the doubt in times of crisis.
Alastair is right. When all is said and done, what matters is the impact.
Make business a force for good: B Corp case study
Challenge Factory has learned a lot since my early experience of feeling out of place at Cannexus12. We’ve worked hard to bring the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) into our work and, for the past two years, have been pursuing B Corporation Certification.
To be successful in the B Impact Assessment (powered and scored by B Lab), your organization has to demonstrate a current, existing positive impact in the categories of governance, workers, community, the environment, and customers. You have to consider the impact of your organization’s work not only on the customers or clients you serve, but on everyone who participates in your supply chain, as well as the relationship between that supply chain and the environment.
Your articles of incorporation have to be changed to embed impact values into your organization and you have to adopt an Impact Business Model (IBM), use it to drive your business strategy, and demonstrate the impact your organization has on the world as a result. These business models are a terrific tie to the UN SDGs. They ensure businesses are not only focused on doing good, but on doing it well—in service of a higher purpose with clear metrics and accountability for results.
Becoming a B Corp is difficult, and it is public. Your business scorecard is made available on the B Corp Certification website and you have to share financial and other performance-based information with your staff.
Not every organization will pursue B Corp Certification—and that’s okay. But the basic principle of holding ourselves and our organizations to account for the impact we have is available to everyone at much lower effort through the UN SDGs. These 17 goals unite work, individuals, and organizations around the world, elevating and connecting day-to-day tasks to broader impact. They unite different types of organizations across geographies and provide common language and understanding of why we do the work that we do.
Creating space for impact work
My experience at Cannexus12 didn’t shake my commitment to my new business or career journey, although it was a moment that would require reflection and sense-making.
For my session at Cannexus in 2022, I facilitated a workshop with career development professionals about shaping the future of our sector together. It led to powerful moments of connection between attendees, between our presents and futures, and between our work and the UN SDGs. It also led to important questions that need answers if we want to bring the value of career development to all Canadians.
B Corp Certification is one example of how to break down silos between sectors that are too often assumed to be separated by irreconcilable public good and profit mandates. It demands that for-profit and non-profit organizations alike demonstrate they are viable and well-run. Profit is celebrated when it serves to accelerate the positive impact of the business.
We’re in revolutionary times. To shape the Future of Work, from workplace cultures to careers, we need specific mechanisms to hold organizations of all types accountable for creating, sustaining, and celebrating positive impact. Without these mechanisms, we’ll never know for certain if and how we’re succeeding.