The scale and pace of climate change demands a rapid, radical and concerted change effort for many organisations. Working with Hampshire County Council, ABL designed the PACT framework to help leaders to identify what level of performance their organisations need to attain, to pinpoint where they currently stand in relation to this goal and to map out the practical actions that can help them to move forward quickly.
The framework shows how organisations improve their response to climate change in six predictable stages, becoming able to handle issues of increasing complexity as they understand the issue better and build their own capacity.
Most organisations of any size have moved beyond Response Level 1 (RL1): "Core business focused". As they begin also to activate RL2, "Stakeholder responsive", they benefit by spotting the changing needs of major stakeholders, so avoiding costly emergency actions to comply under duress.
Many organisations, particularly in the business world, are now also able to use RL3: "Efficient management". Benefits include well managed energy and water costs and the ability to notice and take advantage of commercial opportunities - e.g. carbon trading. This represents progress and builds a basis for the future. But climate change poses challenges that go far beyond business-as-usual. What comes next?
At RL4, "Breakthrough projects", top managers set targets for significant performance breakthroughs. These projects allow participants to explore issues in depth, to look beyond the status quo, to build a base of understanding of issues and options from which leaders can responsibly set the organisation's future direction. Focusing on areas where win : wins with the organisation's other priorities are possible, such projects potentially offers multiple benefits - e.g. costs, revenues, relations with stakeholders, reputation. Activating and using RL4 represents the current challenge for many leaders.
RL5, "Strategic resilience" is beginning to be activated in a few leading organisations, with a focus on enhancing the organisation's resilience to climate impacts as they grow in intensity and to the energy constraints that are beginning to bite. At RL5, climate change due diligence and risk management becomes a central business concern. Major changes of approach are often needed and this demands a high level of capacity.
There is also an RL6, the "Champion organisation". Whereas RL5 helps the organisation respond to a changing strategic context, at RL6 the organisation addresses the context that is changing. However very few organisations yet work at this level.
While increasing capacity can be shown to help wider social responses to climate change, not all organisations have an equally compelling business case to reach the higher response levels. However those that take big money decisions that are semi-irreversible over a 20+ year timescale, those with a strategic role, or which hold significant assets, usually need to activate RL5, "Strategic resilience", alone or with others. For most, this remains quite a challenge.
Learn about the Nine Developmental Pathways
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