Most decisions are made with best intentions. Still, about half of business decisions end in failure.

More than 20 years of study* on how decisions are made concluded that decisions fail half the time. Two out of three decisions use failure prone tactics. That’s a lot, isn’t? Read here what you can do to lift the odds that your decisions will be successful.

1. Know what you want
Set the right focus. Know what you want to accomplish and how you know you have got it. Knowing why the goal is important. It gives you a purpose and, motivation to act. It also helps you inspire and motivate others. However, defining what and why can be tough. If it is so for you, let a sparring partner help you get it cleared.

2. Determine your starting point
Make a reality-check. Is your goal doable? Realistic? Sustainable? Go through the facts. Evaluate possibilities. Requirements. Consequences. Crucial success-parameters. Needed action. Don’t forget the overall picture. Is it clear for you? If not, get someone to compile it and present it in a graspable way.

3. Define your needs
What are the questions you need answers to? Know that once you identify questions, answers can be found. Think through what you still need to reach the target. More clarity? New ideas? Smart solutions? Knowing true stakeholder needs? Feedback on how a decision would be received? Other? Make a list.

4. Engage stakeholders
There are many out there eager to help you with your meaningful goal. Provided you ask them. Ask and listen. Repeatedly. Identify and clarify their specific needs and opinions. Acknowledge them. Let your stakeholders be heard. It helps you to get them actively working for the goal both with you and for you.

5. Communicate successfully
Keep your helpers inspired and motivated. Tell what’s going on and why. Share results openly. Show you appreciate their engagement. Express it clearly. Do respond to the input. Follow-up. It pays.

Making wise and winning decisions require a high degree of courage and integrity. The end result is clear: a winning decision is good for the company, its stakeholders (including nature), and the decision maker. Everyone wins.

* see  http://ihdynamics.co.za/publications/articles/why-decisions-fail

Frequently cited estimates claim, that only 10-30% of training transfers into actual use on the job. 

Congratulations if you belong to the minority having experienced successful training transfers. If not, know that it’s doable, and even simple, to dramatically increase training transfer. However, you have to be prepared to invest both time and effort. The 7 steps make it easier for you to succeed.

1. Require results
How many of your training programs have specific measurable goals? Which are your requirements on the trainers? What do you demand from the participants? What results do you want? Do you know? To get results, expect results. Demand results. Make sure goals are specific and measurable. Communicate them.

2. Engage participants
Nobody changes without a reason. Give a meaningful context for the program. Why is it important? Make sure the program enables contribution to business and organization goals. Address real needs linked to work and own life. Demonstrate that the participant matters. Listen and respond, again and again.

3. Build in repetition
Repetition is the mother of learning. Foster it. Let program components form a logical whole. Make sure components work both independently, and together. Build up. Let parts overlap. Feed in relevant information before, during and after the program. Repeat key points in different ways. Give them time to sink in.

4. Keep it hands-on
Research shows that far more people act themselves into new ways of thinking than think themselves into new ways of acting. Build the confidence needed to act. Run exercises to integrate new thinking, behaviour and necessary information. Make sure exercises are linked to work, business and/or individual needs.

5. Make it easy to learn
The trainer makes the difference. Choose trainers that not only master their subject but also are masters on how to make learning easy and fun. They honour different learning styles. Involve participants. Address and meet needs. Keep in mind that in general, no more than half of the material presented should be new.

6. Support training transfer

Use it or lose it. To get new skills into everyday routines, most people need assistance, encouragement and feedback when learning. Build in a coaching element. Be it through a coach, fellow participant(s) or a supervisor. Tell how you will follow up. How do you know the training transfer has been successful?

7. Call on someone to make it easier for you
There are specialists to help you determine specific &measurable goals. Identify needs. Involve participants. Create the concept. Specify requirements. Design exercises. Plan support. Follow up. You name it. Allow yourself to make it easier for you.

Remember Benjamin Franklins words and you’ll know how to make training stick: “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”.

Taking care of our wellbeing as a species without causing harm to living conditions, makes the sweet spot for Cleantech companies. It’s also a reason to attract and retain talented people.

You need to know one thing: Needs drive action. Consciously or not, what ever you do is done in an effort to meet a need. Be it to survive or to strive for fulfilment. Needs direct wellbeing, and performance. When your needs are met you feel good. When they are not met, you feel bad. This is valid for anyone, anywhere, anytime. Needs are universal, also at work.

Live, Love, Learn, and Leave a Legacy. This is how Dr Stephen Covey (1932-2012) simplified our universal, human needs. You need to Live, i.e. to safely get by. You will always need Love, i.e. to belong to a group, friendship & love and to get attention & recognition. Once these very fundamental needs are met, the needs to Learn & Leave a Legacy get more dominant. The ability to fulfil those needs at work is crucial for many top-performers. See the figure below to know what employers can do to attract and retain these talents.

Best employees seek frequent opportunities to learn and grow their knowledge and skills. Cleantech companies are ahead of development. They make new inventions, or improve old ones to create profitable sustainable development. They are able to continuously provide employees with numerous creative challenges, possibilities to obtain new knowledge and learn.

Talents often want to contribute to a higher cause. They want to benefit individuals, societies, and the planet as a whole. Doing “good” feels good. Taking care of the wellbeing of the human species, and living conditions is in the DNA of Cleantech companies. They help to make e.g. good and economical energy, clean water and nutritious food accessible for both current and future generations. That provides meaningful goals to work for.

Beautifully enough, when employees in Cleantech companies meet their own needs to Live, Love, Learn, and Leave a Legacy, they simultaneously help others to meet their basic needs as well. Everybody wins.

“The beginning of wisdom is to acknowledge the facts. Fighting reality is in vain. It can’t lead to success”
J.K Paasikivi, President of Finland 1946-1956

Paasikivi’s words are good reminders for all who dream about a sustainable future, and especially for all of us that are willing to go the extra mile to create it. There are many realities to acknowledge.

Firstly. We are loosing the safe space within which humanity can operate and flourish.
Nine interdependent “Planetary Boundaries” define a safe operating space for humanity. Crossing them imply a risk of irreversible and abrupt change. Climate Change, Biodiversity and Nitrogen boundaries are already crossed. Many of the others, i.e. Ocean Acidification, Freshwater use, Land use change, Ozone layer depletion, Aerosol, and Chemical pollution boundaries, have the same course.

Secondly. Humanity is increasing its burden on the planet.
Population is growing. That’s a given. Elimination of poverty is a top-priority economic and social concern for emerging economies. This means that economic growth is also a given. It will imply increasing resource use and greenhouse gas emissions in a situation where we already over-emit and over-consume. Hardly anyone will voluntarily decrease the current level of comfort. The strain on planetary boundaries will further increase.

Both realities pose huge challenges, and their combination summarizes the challenge of our lifetime: How to take care of our wellbeing as a species without causing harm to our (future) living conditions? The question could also be put differently:

How to deliver economic growth and stay within the planetary boundaries?

Delivering answers to that question give the sweet spots for Cleantech companies.

For condensed information on Planetary Boundaries, Climate Change and how the future will look like, please, go to http://awecore.com/download/ ‎.

Cleantech is frequently discussed. Everybody knows what it is. Do they?

Cleantech is profitable sustainable development
Cleantech, Clean Technology is a general term. It represents a diverse range of products, processes and services intended to create profitable sustainable development. Good and economical energy, clean water, nutritious food and, light but durable materials, are examples of what cleantech innovations help to produce for both current and coming generations.

Minimizing environmental burden and maximizing resource efficiency
Cleantech addresses problems that distance us from a sustainable society. Solutions help to minimize humanity’s negative impacts on the environment. The goal is to work with nature, not against it.

Cleantech is influencing the functionality of society
Cleantech is pollution control. Be it to air, water or soil. It is also recycling technologies and new materials to minimize use of scarce natural resources. Cleantech is clean energy production and, to secure effective use of energy, it also addresses problems associated with energy storage. Furthermore, cleantech brings solutions for securing food and freshwater supply for a growing population.

Sources
http://cleantechinn.se/cleantech-0
http://www.cleantech.admin.ch/cleantech/00505/index.html?lang=enhttp://www.dcti.de/en/cleantech/definition.html
http://www.kachan.com/about/cleaner-technology-definition-cleantech
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/clean-technology-clean-tech
http://www.tem.fi/files/33529/Cleantechin_strategisen_ohjelman_indikaattorit_loppuraportti_Gaia.pdf
http://www.stat.fi/meta/kas/puhtaan_tekniik.html
http://www.gurux.fi/index.php?q=fi/fi_blog05052011
http://www.tem.fi/files/35435/Suomesta_Cleantechin_edellakavija.pdf
http://www.cleantechfinland.com/?q=content/about-us