Driving Organisational Change: Training in Sustainability Leadership

Hear about how UKGBC's Bespoke Learning team designed and facilitated a sustainability leadership programme that supported Wates in taking leaders on their sustainability journey.

The built environment is a key contributor to climate change and biodiversity collapse. Both pose a risk to our sector and business if we fail to evolve sufficiently quickly, or in the right way.  Wates recognises this, with Environmental Sustainability already being a strategic priority for a number of years, and a number of really exciting initiatives going on around the business. However, we knew that to achieve everything we wanted to and to speed up the change required, we needed to engage with our leaders in a more meaningful way that drove inspirational action across the Group.

Engaging leaders in meaningful conversations

We spoke to UKGBC and straight away they understood and connected to our vision.  Although we wanted to touch on some of the technical aspects of sustainability in the built environment, we didn’t need a technical training course. We did need to engage our leaders in a conversation about their role, their personal drivers and the change required in creating a more sustainable organisation. We needed to offer them an experience.

We also knew that our leaders time is valuable, and so the way we structured our programme was a key focus. UKGBC helped us design a tailored-made programme to suit our leaders busy schedules, combining bursts of online learning and transformative in-person workshops. to help us achieve the outcomes we wanted. A vital part of this blended approach was a two-day residential which took delegates away from the office environment and provided them with space in nature to reflect and truly engage in the conversation. This is very different to what they have experienced on other leadership programmes. Equally powerful was the final segment, where delegates were building on their personal change journeys to define the difference they want to make in their areas of influence.

The programme has been transformational both for our organisation and also our leaders as individuals, leading to a number of new initiatives being launched across the organisation”

Finding new ways to shape change

We now run our annual alumni event for all past and present delegates, offering them a chance to come together, re-engage and learn from each other. This event also supports our programme evaluation efforts, allowing us to capture real examples of operational change and impact. The benefit for our leaders to ‘cross pollinate’ across cohorts is really powerful and has created a network of like-minded change makers at Wates.

For myself working in a learning and Development role, working with UKGBC has felt like having an extension of our own team. they are extremely flexible, challenge our own thinking, and partner with us in the truest sense of the word”

During both the design and on-going delivery of the programme, UKGBC have shared their passion and expertise in a truly value-added way.  The feedback from our delegates is fantastic, with some taking it upon themselves to share their experiences on social media, and all expressing a shared purpose and commitment to change.  Others have used their experience on the programme to shape their business strategy, something which helped one delegate achieve a promotion.

Leaders in our Smartspace business were tasked with fitting out one of our own offices, and decided to challenge themselves to create the most sustainable workspace possible. This resulted in developing one of the most efficient spaces in the Wates portfolio. In fact, the feedback and impact of the programme was so good that our CEO insisted on attending the programme to see what all the fuss was about. Needless to say, he wasn’t disappointed.

As a result, our leaders are given an experience, rather than a training programme, that really challenges and supports them in how they lead on this topic. I would recommend partnering with UKGBC to anyone looking to engage their leaders in a conversation on leading environmental sustainability and drive real change in their organisation.

If you’d like to contact UKGBC about our Bespoke learning offering, feel free to email learning@ukgbc.org

Find out more about UKGBC’s Bespoke Learning

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