Innovation + Responsibility

Last week Sun hosted a roundtable discussion session with The Good Business Network at our Menlo Park campus. The session topic was "employee engagement" - how companies can enlist employees in our efforts to meet - and exceed - the goals we have set for ourselves around sustainability, eco responsibility, csr - whatever you want to call it.  I wanted to host this session because I think that employee engagement is a crucial component to successfully creating a culture of sustainability within a company.  When we talk about companies it seems like we are talking about big faceless entities.  But companies are made up of people (more than 33,000 here at Sun) and it is these people that will determine our success or failure - as a business, as a steward of the earth, as a good neighbor, as a responsible member of the larger community.

Kevin Sweeney facilitated the meeting and, as usual, he did a great job. The thing Kevin touched on - and I have heard him talk about it before - is something that I think gets lost in corporate translation.  Kevin believes (and I tend to agree) that we need to engage people emotionally as well as intellectually.  Now, emotion is kind of taboo in the workplace, right?  Or is it? Companies want their employees to love working there (love is an emotion).  They want the public to be passionate about the brand (passion is an emotion).  They want people to get excited about our products (excitement is an emotion).  So why not talk about the challenges - and solutions - facing us as a civilization with that same emotion? Engage with people's passion to do good in their communities.  Talk honestly about their desire to leave a healthy planet to their children.  Encourage them to get excited about their jobs in a whole new way - a way that enables them to use their skills to have a positive impact on our business, our society and our earth. 

Okay, so it's a little melodramatic. But I think that's okay. Because actually the stakes are really high.  And when the stakes are high, emotions run high, too. And if emotion is what it is going to take to get every person at Sun to realize that they can play a role - they can be an extension of the Eco team, they can be an extension of the Citizenship team - then emotion is what I will appeal to as I try to convince every single employee in every location around the world that they can contribute to this effort.

Early next year I will be launching an internal program aimed at exactly this effort - engaging our employees so that those who are interested can become a part of our extended team. You don't have to work for Dave Douglas to be on the Eco or CSR team at Sun. You don't have to work in the Global Citizenship group to have an impact on our efforts to promote digital inclusion.  All you have to do is want to help. We will create the space for Sun employees to participate in our efforts and from there, we are pretty sure they will come up with better ideas than we could have ever dreamed of. Product ideas, ideas for better operations, innovative approaches to solving nagging Sun problems. 

See...here I am at work and I am excited. I am loving my job. I am passionate about this work and the change I know we can create.  Imagine if we could harness all that emotion that I know lives within the more than 30,000 employees at Sun.  The possibilities are endless.

I look forward to firing this up in the new year! Until then, have a safe and peaceful holiday season.  Here's to a joyous and Democratic 2008!

Update: Check out this article from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. It arrived in my inbox one day after I wrote this post.