At the AGSM 2024 Professional Forum hosted by the University of New South Wales in Australia, Ford School professor Betsey Stevenson gave the keynote address on sustainable leadership and how it can help address the world’s most complex problems. She split her advice into three parts: anticipate the unintended, have full visibility of problems through diverse teams, and find growth while prioritizing sustainability.
Working for the Obama administration, Stevenson said, "People would come to me with wonderful ideas that might make the world a better place, and my job was to tell them how it would do that, but also to tell them how it might make the world a worse place." She explained that with every decision or policy, "You have to consider who gets hurt. Because people always get hurt." But she said, "Unintended consequences should never be unanticipated," leading to her next point on anticipating these consequences.
Stevenson says we need to recognize "that our unique experiences give us a different perspective. If you're bringing somebody onto your team who has had a very similar lived experience to you, they're probably going to have a very similar interpretation as you – you should look to widen that.” As an example, she described when she was asked to sit on the board of rideshare company Lyft. “Lyft wanted me there to show them what they’re not seeing – to be the opposing voice. As a responsible and sustainable leader, you must invite those voices in," said Stevenson.
Finally, she emphasized, “Growth is why we live a better life, and I think we should never forget that.” But she said, “We need to talk about what growth is. It’s about productivity. About doing more with less. It’s about squeezing more out of a set of resources, not about consuming more resources.”
"There's always a tension between what are we consuming today and what are we preserving or building for the future," explained Stevenson.
Stevenson also described that companies need to be ready for the impact of inevitable change in our economies. The key to a more sustainable future, according to Stevenson, is creating a fairer economy. She concluded, “Sustainable leadership is not about giving everybody what they want. It’s about listening and hearing the needs – and finding a compromise that serves both.”
Read the article about her keynote here.
