From discord to harmony

In the early days of my strategy career, I developed a change model; in any project, it takes approximately 20% of the time to understand the problem, 10% to come up with a solution, and 70% to convince everyone else it was their idea in order to get it done.

There is a profound lesson in this that takes a while to master, and with it, the ability to turn the process on its head, halve the time, and double the likelihood of success. The lesson is this: Get the right people in the room, ask the right questions, and facilitate the debate carefully, almost invisibly, until they have a joint eureka moment.  It can happen, and when it does, you feel like a conductor: The music is theirs, the change is theirs, the solutions theirs, the momentum and actions theirs. The knowledge of a job well done is yours.  

An example occurred on the eve of the UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi.  The agenda had all stakeholders up in arms and feeling angry.  Why had the UN put ‘green economy’ on the agenda? This was the global ministerial environment forum.  

There was an open and loud mutiny brewing in the main hall, more than 300 people ready to bring down the motion.  I put up my hand, and was allowed to ask a question. “If we don’t like this agenda, what principles would define it, so we would like it?”  The room paused, and I quickly followed up.  “If anyone would like to help answer that question, I invite you to a breakout room over lunch to create an answer.”  Perhaps, sixty people turned up.  Over lunch, with a white board, pens, and honest facilitation, this group created the first draft of the green economy principles.  They were saved on a computer, and shared on email lists, printed, and left on the tables in the conference hall.  

Over the next few days, in heated debates the principles became a much-used document for private negotiations between stakeholders and their governments. I saw ministers brandishing copies.  People started to engage with the agenda, on their terms, and with their words and thinking. The concept of a green economy survived through the official process and went on to be adopted as one of the main agenda items for the Rio Earth Summit. 

The story did not end there.  The principles resurfaced time and time again over the next few years as a central input into official country dialogues helping achieve understanding and buy-in until the next big crisis emerged. A schism was forming within the sustainable economy movement; green growth was the hot new agenda popular with governments and it threatened the whole green economy concept as it paid no recognition to environmental limits.  But, rather than fight, we convened.  

We asked the leading thinkers, the key doers, from the global institutions who were championing the two agendas into a room to discuss what principles unite them. Using the original principles as a starter because they had already gained credibility through many national consultation processes with many thousands of people, the institutional leaders knew they were working on a foundational question, so they gave it space, time, and attention. With the right question, the right space, gentle facilitation, a very careful pen, these leaders achieved a consensus on an updated set of principles.  To this day, “Principles Priorities and Pathways” is a founding building block of our green economy movement, published jointly, by the UN, OECD, ILO, GEC and others.   It was presented to all governments at the UN High Level Political Forum in New York. 

The story echoes forward.  The document gets a download spike at the start of each new academic year, as economic students around the world are asked ‘what are the principles of a sustainable economy.’   

Together – the three magic ingredients - the right question, the right people, and skilled facilitation can make profound change happen. It is also magic to conduct.