This is the moment...
Catalysta is the forum to explore and develop jobs that are socially responsible,
sustainable, and benefit the common good.

Would you like to collaborate as a writer?
Be in touch


Recent Interchange

Q: Do you think you’ve realized your company’s mission of reaching those normally forgotten with a product specifically designed for their needs?
Moderated by Peggy Thomas
Image by Michela Martello
November 7, 2011


Q: Writers are often faced with ethical dilemmas, including projects that require them to produce articles containing messages incompatible with their beliefs. What are the implications of writing from an inauthentic perspective and what advice do you have for those who wish to write in both a personally and socially responsible way?
Moderated by James Paladino
Image by Ariele Hertzoff
October 31, 2011


Q: What are creative ways for an entrepreneur to incorporate social responsibility into multiple levels of a business?
Moderated by Amy Paxton
Image by Thomas Chan
October 24, 2011


Q: How can those who already practice and advocate social responsibility as a career be more effective in their mission?
Moderated by Matt Brady
Image by Ed Goldberg
September 19, 2011

Q: How can a continuing education class in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) be practically applied to the workplace?

A: In a workplace, one of the barriers to achieving a more socially responsible environment would be the fact that someone might, in the beginning, be a lone voice in that work place. He might be the only person crying out in the wilderness, the only one really conscious of the need to be socially responsible.  And what we find is that sometimes the person who’s the first needs to almost convert some of their co-workers to his way of thinking before anyone is even willing to think about doing things slightly differently. You see, behaving responsibility very often requires change in the way we do things.  And people are reluctant to change.  It’s easier to do things the same way you’ve always done them. And so, until you have a significant mass of individuals who are thinking the same way, there’s going to be resistance to change.

This is where a continuing education class might come into play.   One of the most practical parts of our program is a web-based simulation called Experience Change.  We have designed an experience with CSR, which talks about the change in management process.  It takes students through stages they’d have to go through in order to get people on board so that they’re even willing to consider change in the way they do things.

In this simulation students are hired to be a CSR consultant for a company.  This company is facing a number of challenges and they need a consultant to come in help them implement the CSR agenda.   We play that game early in our program so that people encounter some workplace obstacles right away.  The student’s job is to do a certain number of things within a certain time frame and within a certain budget.  In the web based simulation, like in the workplace, you have to if you take certain steps out of order or try to do some things too quickly the result will be even more resistance.

The Tipping Point

Upon completion of our program, we hear two kinds of stories from students. Some students go back to work and become a leader of a team that tries to implement some of the CSR strategies that they learned.  Depending on what part of the company they’re working in, for instance, human resources, accounting, or sustainability efforts, they might also be gathering other people to implement certain tactics. What also happens is that the company then sends additional people. Perhaps each year they’ll send one or two more people, whether it’s to our program or to another program, and then gradually the company builds up a critical mass of CSR trained individuals. Eventually, they get to what we like to call the “tipping point” within the organization.  This is where a company has always done things one way and then gradually, over a period of four or five years, it does more and more in the socially and environmentally responsible way. 
And what happens to other people, and this is quite interesting, too, is that their company sends them to the program and they experience a personal transformation.   Then, they go back to the company and start to feel frustrated because they can’t move the agenda as far as they would like.  In this case, we do find that some of our graduates change companies either shortly after they leave the program, or within a year or two after graduation. 
In either case, there is a CSR industry growing up that needs qualified CSR professionals. Whether within their own companies, or after leaving their original company, professionals can become specialists in an aspect of CSR and then set themselves up to become consultants.   The CSR consultancies niche is growing.  When we started this program ten years ago there were very few people who called themselves consultants in this area.   Now there are many.”