Sustainability transition is about resilience. All three of these are tricky concepts, conceptually and practically, and I am not getting into definitions here. Nonetheless…

I’ve been tinkering with this 5A framework over the past few years and it is genuinely starting to support my work. Yip – no numbers and no arrows. The framework does not promise five simple steps to anything or anywhere. I have long since ceased to trust any simplistic framework.

• Every organisation already addresses these elements – to some degree – whether consciously or not.
• Organisations start with the element that appears to be the most useful place (which could be anywhere – it depends on what’s happening now in your organisation).
• They typically work on several things in tandem.
• What sustainability transition means becomes clearer along the way and depends on how we make sense of things.

Despite all this messiness, we invariably find it useful to track the transition effort on this framework.

For example:

• The Exco is suddenly aware that ESG ratings are falling behind those of your peers: focus on Account, while tracking the other areas.
• Sustainability integration is gaining traction, but there are hundreds of projects on the go and people are feeling overwhelmed: can you Align things a little better?
• You’ve ticked the reasonable boxes and know intuitively it’s not enough: find funding to Accelerate your effort with safe-to-fail explorations.

Here’s the latest 5A framework:

The 5A framework is informed by the Cynefin Framework and other insights from Dave Snowden and The Cynefin Co.

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Photo of tree in the banner pic is by Miikka A. on Unsplash