Why the most successful organisations of tomorrow may be those that look beyond profit, embrace purpose and create opportunities for people and communities to thrive.
When we talk about sustainability in business, what immediately comes to mind?
Reducing carbon emissions? Cutting waste? Using less energy? Perhaps meeting new environmental regulations or demonstrating responsible business practices to customers?
All are important. But what if sustainability is only part of a much bigger opportunity?
At our May 2025 Connect Over A Cuppa event in Harrogate, we welcomed Clive Wilson, a leadership and organisational change specialist and author of Leading Beyond Sustainability: Six Aspirations for a Brighter Future.
Clive challenged us to think differently about the future. Rather than concentrating solely on sustaining what we already have, he encouraged us to consider what a genuinely better future could look like, and the role that businesses, leaders and individuals can play in creating it.
It was an interesting challenge, particularly for business owners who spend much of their time dealing with the immediate pressures of running an organisation.
Because sometimes the biggest opportunities emerge when we stop concentrating exclusively on today’s problems and start thinking about what might be possible tomorrow.
Sustainability Is Important. But Is It Ambitious Enough?
Most businesses understand that they need to operate more sustainably.
For some, this is driven by legislation, customer expectations or the need to reduce costs. For others, it reflects a genuine commitment to environmental and social responsibility.
But Clive’s central argument invited us to look further.
What if, rather than simply trying to minimise the harm we cause, we asked how our organisations could make a positive contribution to the world around us?
There is an important difference.
A business might reduce its energy consumption, improve recycling and introduce more responsible purchasing practices. These are worthwhile achievements.
But could that same business also develop products that improve people’s lives, create meaningful employment, support local communities or introduce innovations that make better use of resources?
The distinction is between reducing negative impacts and actively creating positive outcomes.
Clive illustrated this with an analogy from martial arts. To break through a target, the martial artist visualises the space beyond it, rather than concentrating solely on the target itself.
It’s an interesting way of thinking about business strategy.
If our ambition is simply to meet the minimum requirements, are we limiting what our businesses could achieve?
Perhaps the starting point should be a more ambitious question: what would we like our business, our people and our wider community to look like in ten years’ time?
Six Aspirations for a Brighter Future
At the heart of Clive’s presentation were six aspirations that offer a broader perspective on what progress might mean.
Connection, Peace, Vitality, Abundance, Opportunity and Wisdom.
Although these are global aspirations, they also provide a useful framework for thinking about leadership and organisational development.
1. Connection: Great Things Rarely Happen in Isolation
Clive’s first aspiration focused on the power of connection, including collaboration, compassion, love and kindness.
We live in an increasingly connected world, with technology enabling people and organisations to communicate and collaborate across geographical boundaries.
Yet being digitally connected doesn’t necessarily mean we are working together effectively.
In business, it’s surprising how frequently departments operate independently, each concentrating on its own targets and responsibilities.
Sales might be pursuing growth without fully understanding operational capacity. Marketing might be developing campaigns without engaging the people who deal directly with customers. Senior leaders might make decisions without drawing on the knowledge of their wider teams.
There is often considerable untapped potential within an organisation.
The opportunity is to create an environment where people share ideas, challenge assumptions and work towards common objectives.
Connection also extends beyond the business itself.
Could collaborating with suppliers lead to better products? Could working with another local company open up a new market? Could supporting a community organisation create opportunities for employees to develop new skills?
For business leaders, the question is not simply how many people we know.
It’s how effectively we use our relationships to create something valuable together.
2. Peace: Creating Environments Where People Can Thrive
Peace might initially seem an unusual topic for a business leadership discussion.
Clive’s aspiration was global, encompassing the reduction of war and violence. But there is also a useful organisational parallel.
Consider the difference between working in a business characterised by conflict, blame and uncertainty, and one where people feel respected, listened to and supported.
The first can consume enormous amounts of management time and energy.
The second creates more opportunity for people to concentrate on customers, innovation and improvement.
This doesn’t mean avoiding difficult conversations.
Good leadership frequently involves challenging ideas, addressing poor performance and making decisions that not everyone will welcome.
But there is a difference between constructive disagreement and destructive conflict.
A healthy business culture allows people to question decisions, raise concerns and offer alternative perspectives without fearing personal consequences.
It also requires leaders to recognise that people bring different experiences, personalities and expectations to work.
How much more could your organisation achieve if less energy were spent managing internal friction and more was directed towards shared objectives?
3. Vitality: People and the Planet Need to Flourish
Clive’s third aspiration, vitality, focused on health and wellbeing across all forms of life.
His presentation included examples ranging from improvements in human health to environmental restoration and the development of healthier communities.
For businesses, vitality provides an opportunity to think about the conditions needed for long-term success.
A company may be financially successful while simultaneously placing unsustainable demands on its people.
Employees might be working excessive hours, managers might be permanently firefighting, and business owners themselves may struggle to find time away from work.
That isn’t necessarily a recipe for sustainable growth.
A more resilient organisation needs people who have the energy, skills and motivation to contribute over the longer term.
It also needs to consider how its products, services and operations affect the wider environment.
Could better working practices improve both productivity and employee wellbeing?
Could redesigning a product reduce material consumption while improving its performance?
Could investing in people reduce staff turnover and strengthen customer relationships?
These aren’t simply questions about corporate responsibility.
They are also questions about creating stronger, more adaptable businesses.
4. Abundance: Looking for Opportunities Rather Than Limitations
Clive’s fourth aspiration concerned abundance: access to food, water, energy, services and wealth.
His presentation highlighted innovations and initiatives addressing issues such as food production, renewable energy, resource efficiency and community needs.
What makes this particularly relevant to business is the shift in thinking from scarcity towards opportunity.
Many organisations understandably focus on constraints.
Not enough people. Not enough resources. Increasing costs. Limited capacity. Difficult market conditions.
These challenges are real, but concentrating exclusively on them can sometimes prevent businesses from recognising new possibilities.
Innovation often begins when someone asks whether there might be a different way of doing something.
Could waste from one process become a valuable resource for another?
Could a product be redesigned to use fewer materials?
Could technology make an essential service more accessible?
Could two businesses collaborate to create an offering that neither could deliver independently?
Of course, not every idea will be commercially viable.
But businesses that actively explore opportunities may discover new sources of value while addressing wider social or environmental challenges.
The opportunity isn’t necessarily to choose between commercial success and positive impact. It’s to look for ways of achieving both.
5. Opportunity: Helping People Reach Their Potential
Clive’s fifth aspiration focused on opportunities for learning, growth and contribution.
This has particular relevance for business leaders.
Most organisations recognise the importance of recruiting good people. Yet developing the potential of the people already within the business can sometimes receive less attention.
Individuals may have skills, interests and ideas that are not fully recognised in their current roles.
A junior employee might have an excellent understanding of emerging technology. Someone working in operations might identify an opportunity to improve customer service. An experienced team member might have the potential to become an effective leader but lack the confidence or opportunity to develop.
Clive’s presentation included examples of supporting personal development and helping individuals take greater ownership of their careers.
There is an important leadership lesson here.
Developing people isn’t simply about training them to perform their existing jobs more effectively.
It’s also about creating opportunities for them to contribute in new ways.
That might involve mentoring, cross-departmental projects, leadership development or giving employees greater responsibility for solving problems.
Some business owners worry that developing people will encourage them to move elsewhere.
But failing to develop people carries its own risks.
An organisation that doesn’t create opportunities for growth may struggle to retain talent, introduce new ideas or develop the leaders it needs for the future.
6. Wisdom: Knowing What to Do, Not Just How to Do It
The final aspiration was wisdom.
Clive described this as the ability to do the right thing, in the right way, at the right time.
It’s a deceptively simple idea.
Business leaders are surrounded by information, advice, technology and competing priorities.
But access to more information doesn’t automatically lead to better decisions.
Sometimes the greatest leadership challenge is recognising which opportunities to pursue, which risks to accept and when to change direction.
Wisdom also involves understanding the consequences of decisions beyond their immediate financial impact.
A business might be able to reduce costs by changing suppliers. But what might that mean for product quality, customer relationships or the resilience of its supply chain?
A company might achieve rapid growth by placing additional demands on its employees. But what happens if that growth comes at the expense of the culture and capabilities that made the business successful?
Wise leadership requires curiosity, perspective and a willingness to consider different viewpoints.
It also requires the confidence to acknowledge that we don’t always have the answers.
Leading Change Means Understanding Different People
Another interesting element of Clive’s presentation concerned the different characters we encounter when leading organisational change.
He illustrated a range of roles and attitudes, including innovators, facilitators, optimists, specialists, activists, explorers, connectors and encouragers.
But he also recognised the existence of apathy, denial and even sabotage.
Anyone who has led a significant change programme will probably recognise some of these behaviours.
Introduce a new strategy and some people will immediately see the opportunities.
Others will want evidence.
Some will be enthusiastic but unsure how to contribute.
Others may be concerned about what the changes mean for their roles or the future of the organisation.
And occasionally, individuals will actively resist.
The temptation for leaders can be to concentrate on those who are enthusiastic and dismiss those who raise concerns.
But that can be a mistake.
The specialist asking difficult technical questions may be identifying a genuine risk.
The cautious manager might understand an operational problem that hasn’t been considered.
Even resistance can provide useful information about how well a proposed change has been communicated or understood.
Effective change leadership isn’t about expecting everyone to think in the same way.
It’s about understanding different perspectives and helping people contribute constructively.
A successful strategy needs more than a compelling vision. It needs people who understand it, believe in it and have the capability to deliver it.
The Wisdom Code: How Leaders Behave Matters
Clive also introduced what he called the Wisdom Code, organised around three themes: attitude, action and relationship.
These included qualities such as curiosity, authenticity, learning, foresight, collaboration, listening, empathy and kindness.
It’s an interesting reminder that leadership isn’t simply about setting objectives and measuring performance.
How leaders behave can have an enormous influence on how effectively their organisations operate.
Consider curiosity.
A curious leader asks questions, explores different possibilities and encourages new thinking.
A leader who believes they already have all the answers may unintentionally discourage people from contributing.
Or consider listening.
It’s easy to assume that communication is about explaining decisions clearly. But listening to employees, customers and suppliers can reveal important information that might otherwise be missed.
And then there is authenticity.
People are often remarkably good at recognising the difference between values that are genuinely lived and those that appear only in company presentations.
If a business claims to value collaboration but rewards individual performance at the expense of teamwork, employees will quickly recognise the contradiction.
The lesson is that organisational culture is shaped by everyday behaviour, not simply by the words written in a strategy document.
Purpose Needs to Be Connected to Strategy
Towards the end of his presentation, Clive explored the importance of aligning organisational purpose, vision, engagement, structure, character, results, success and human talent.
This is particularly relevant to businesses seeking to develop a more sustainable approach.
It’s relatively easy to develop an ambitious statement about making a positive difference.
The harder part is translating that ambition into practical decisions.
What does it mean for the products we develop?
How should it influence recruitment, training and investment?
What behaviours do we want to encourage?
How will we measure progress?
And how do we ensure that commercial performance remains strong enough to support our ambitions?
Purpose cannot simply be an additional paragraph in a business plan.
It needs to influence how the organisation operates.
For a growing SME, this doesn’t necessarily require an expensive consultancy exercise or a complicated reporting framework.
It might begin with a conversation involving the leadership team and employees about what the business wants to achieve, why it matters and what needs to change.
From there, the challenge is to establish a manageable number of priorities, allocate responsibilities and review progress.
The strongest strategies are those that people understand and can translate into their everyday work.
A Better Future Starts Closer to Home
One of the most engaging aspects of Clive’s presentation was its connection to Harrogate and the surrounding community.
Attendees were invited to consider the local initiatives and future developments they would like to celebrate.
Ideas included greater collaboration, supporting independent businesses, active travel, environmental improvements and stronger community connections.
This brought an ambitious global discussion back to something much more immediate.
Businesses don’t have to solve every global challenge to make a positive contribution.
They can start by looking at the opportunities within their own organisations and communities.
A manufacturer might support local schools in developing engineering skills.
A professional services business might provide mentoring to emerging entrepreneurs.
A retailer might collaborate with other local businesses to strengthen the town centre.
A growing company might introduce more flexible working practices or invest in developing its future leaders.
Individually, these actions may seem modest.
Collectively, they can help create more resilient organisations and stronger communities.
And that is perhaps one of the most encouraging messages from Clive’s work.
Positive change doesn’t always have to begin with a major initiative.
Sometimes it begins with recognising someone who is already making a difference, supporting their efforts and encouraging others to contribute.
A Final Reflection: What Are We Actually Trying to Build?
Clive’s presentation encouraged us to think beyond the conventional definition of sustainability.
For business owners, this raises some important questions.
Are we simply trying to maintain the business we have today, or are we creating an organisation that will be stronger and more relevant in the future?
Are we developing our people, or simply expecting them to deliver more?
Are we encouraging innovation and collaboration, or allowing established ways of working to limit what might be possible?
And are we measuring success purely through financial performance, or also considering the value we create for customers, employees and the wider community?
Profitability remains essential. Without it, businesses cannot invest, employ people or deliver their ambitions.
But profitability and purpose need not be competing objectives.
Indeed, there may be considerable opportunities for businesses that find ways to combine commercial success with meaningful positive impact.
Perhaps the most useful question to take away from Clive’s session is this:
If your business was genuinely successful over the next ten years, what would be better as a result—not just for its owners, but for its people, customers and community?
It’s a question worth making time to answer.
Because creating a better future starts with being able to imagine one.
About Our Speaker: Clive Wilson
Clive Wilson is a leadership and organisational change specialist, published author and advocate for developing organisations that contribute positively to society and the environment.
His book, Leading Beyond Sustainability: Six Aspirations for a Brighter Future, explores how individuals, leaders and organisations can move beyond conventional sustainability goals to help create a world characterised by connection, peace, vitality, abundance, opportunity and wisdom.
Clive works to encourage more purposeful leadership, organisational development and positive change.