Often times I am asked by leaders I am coaching how to reconcile apparent conflicts between the values and ideals of their company and apparent and intransigent market realities. Rather than have these seeming conflicts be experienced as an either/or dilemma there is another alternative.
I was speaking with a client today who related an incident where an emerging conflict of values with one of their clients resulted in something other than a breakdown. One of the core values of my client's firm is environmental sustainability. A new client of theirs was asking them to assist with the development of a new product that would result in an enormous use of oil to transport critical raw material used in the product. Because of concerns about environmental impact (contributing to global warming through the burning of huge amounts of oil in transportation) the initial reaction of the project manager at my client's firm was to tell their new client that the firm wouldn't be able to work with them on this project. The dilemma this posed is that their client would likely retain another firm to do the work, my client's company would lose a significant amount of revenue as well as likely lose the client for other projects, and they would not have any positive movement toward one of their ideals of helping create environmentally sustainable business practices.
The solution as it was related to me was my client requesting that his project manager go back to the client and invite a conversation to explore alternative ways of developing the product that would not involve the use of this particular raw material (which is a definite but not obvious option). This would negate the need for oceanic shipping and would thereby provide this developing product with a new and previously unrecognized niche with "green" consumers. Rather than the value (sustainability) linked to the realization of of an ideal (environmental responsibility) being the source of polarization and breakdown it becomes the catalyst for exploring new ways of working together and of developing a uniquely new product.
Leaders cause movement. Effective leaders use values as one of the core mechanisms for doing this. A seeming conflict with a company's espoused values in the face of market "realities" can be used as a prelude to opportunity - the opportunity to keep the organization's ideals moving and an opportunity to challenge people to live into the ideals that we say are important to us.
