The Integrated Thinking Resource Hub is an online collection of critical activities underlying the questions of Level 3 of the Integrated Thinking Principles v1.0 . The critical activities will be periodically updated and revised as more organizations share their integrated thinking journeys.
Useful Insight: These critical activities are examples and are not the only way to embed Level 3 key business processes. The aim in sharing these is to provide organizations with considerations, operational steps and insights that may help them kick-start activities covered in Level 3 of the Integrated Thinking Principles. We expect these critical activities to evolve over time in response to the ever-changing environment in which organizations operate.
The content of the Integrated Thinking Resource Hub will be updated periodically to reflect leading management practices.
In recognition that the processes and practices underlying Level 3 evolve and develop over time, we seek feedback to enrich and refine the critical activities collected so far via a short online questionnaire.
Define the organization’s purpose with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders through engagement activities
Who
How
Effort
High
Co-creation of an organization’s purpose with a wide variety of stakeholders helps embed it into the organization and ensures it reflects wider stakeholder priorities.
Training and information sessions with the board and board and other management committees.
Who
How
Effort
Low
Setting an annual training and information session helps to make the case for the board to review decision-making and resource allocation and to assess whether it is consistent with the organization’s purpose review.
Periodical governance review
Who
How
Set an agenda for board evaluation
Effort
Implementing a periodical governance review helps organizations assess the extent to which current governance structures are helping them deliver their strategy and support performance. It can also clarify roles and responsibilities between the board, executive management team and senior management team and how the skills and experiences of the board guide executive and senior management.
Strategic decision-making tool
Initial change management process supported by training programmes and pilot testing of supporting software which anchors multiple capitals to their monetized value
High
A framework built on features such as risk and opportunities assessment or monetized values of the multiple capitals used in an organization can help ensure the strategy and strategic objectives are sound and that strategic opportunities are assessed with the same degree of rigour as strategic risks.
Integrated consolidated information dashboard
Who
How
Initial change management process supported by training programmes to push all departments to consolidate data and information in a consistent way
Effort
High
Working towards an integrated dashboard significantly helps organizations in their integrated thinking journeys, allowing them to assess and communicate interdependencies internally and report them externally.
Employee performance management system
Who
How
Effort
High
Consider the following:
Implementing incentive structures that are aligned to short-, medium- and long-term value creation can be crucial in an integrated thinking journey. The structures support employees in monitoring, tracking and ultimately acknowledging the impact they have as individuals, members of a team and employees of the organization as whole.
Creating a core integrated thinking group and a cross-functional integrated thinking group to oversee and monitor material topics
Who
How
Training programme to transfer knowledge from the core integrated thinking group to the cross-functional integrated thinking group
Effort
High
Creating a core integrated thinking group drives teams to work collectively and break down siloes by championing connectivity
Defining a rigorous process for the collection of non-financial data
Who
How
Effort
Medium
The process of assurance allows an organization to ensure that non-financial data is collected with the same rigour as financial data.
Tool that assesses and manages organizational sustainability and health
Who
How
Effort
Medium/High (*)
(*) depends on the kind of software you are using
Use bi-annual or quarterly surveys to collect employee perspectives on the organization. Organizations also find a tool provided by an external party can be extremely beneficial in assessing whether employees live according to their values and manage organizational health. The tool is built on an extensive survey rolled out every 12 to 18 months. It aims to enhance performance by focusing on improving alignment of the organizational systems by measuring and tracking the organizational elements that drive performance.
HR management tools help yield data that can be assessed by the executive team to understand how effectively employees live their values.
Annual training sessions on business integrity and compliance
Who
How
Training session
Effort
Medium
Key steps
Annual training sessions can be a great way to ensure employees are periodically updated on the policies and ethical behaviour they are expected to live up to.
Annual training sessions on business integrity and compliance
Who
How
Induction for suppliers and training programmes to align with strategic objectives
Effort
High
Establishing a rigorous process to screen key suppliers allows data to be analyzed before making significant procurement and sales decisions.
Cross-functional list of key stakeholders
Who
Sustainability
How
Induction to contacts across functions
Effort
High
Clearly identifying the business model’s key stakeholders is important to stakeholder engagement and materiality assessment processes.
Materiality analysis to identify the material topics
Who
How
Surveys, workshops and listening sessions with the executive management team
Effort
High
Carrying out a materiality analysis has been proven to be essential in the process of identifying and understanding the greatest positive or negative potential impacts on value creation.
Integrated strategic planning process
Who
How
Effort
High
Keep in mind the following:
Adopting an integrated strategic business planning process supports organizations in developing a structured approach to the identification of strategic opportunities.
Strategic decision-making tool
Who
How
Initial change management process supported by training programmes and pilot tests of supporting software that anchors multiple capitals to their monetized value
Effort
High
A framework built on features such as risk and opportunities assessment and monetized values of multiple capitals has helped organizations ensure strategic objectives are sound and that strategic opportunities are assessed with the same degree of rigour as strategic risks.
Analysis of the organization’s contribution to the SDGs
Who
How
Workshop of SDGs and periodical meetings especially when the definition of the new strategy is ongoing
Effort
Medium
Assessing the distinct contribution an organization can make to the SDGs has allowed it to understand the extent to which its strategy and strategic objectives, along with business activities, are contributing to the SDGs.
Integrated consolidated information dashboard
Who
How
Initial change management process supported by training programmes to push all departments to consolidate data and information with one voice
Effort
High
Working towards an integrated dashboard has significantly helped organizations in their integrated thinking journeys, allowing them to assess and communicate interdependencies internally and report them externally.
Create at least one core integrated thinking group
Who
How
Implement a training programme to transfer knowledge from the core integrated thinking group to the cross-functional integrated thinking group
Effort
High
A structured and periodic assessment of material issues has benefitted organizations by driving teams to work collectivity and break down functional siloes by championing connectivity.
Embed the assessment in existing management and reporting streams
Who
Strategy
How
Handover of the core integrated thinking group to the strategy executive team
Effort
Medium
Embedding the assessment of material issues in existing management and reporting streams is a key practice to ensure a periodic assessment of material issues and how they affect the ability to execute an organization’s strategy.
Grassroot innovation detection practice
Who
Business development
How
Initial induction trains employees about the process to follow and then quarterly meetings to monitor progress
Effort
High
Encouraging employees to seize opportunities by leveraging the unique insights they have on the market and customer needs fosters a strong culture based on innovation.
Materiality analysis to identify the material topics
Who
How
Surveys, workshops and listening sessions with the executive management team
Effort
High
Carrying out a materiality analysis has been proved to be essential in the process of understanding the dependencies and impacts of an organization’s material capitals.
Tools to support the definition of key external issues
Who
How
Effort
Medium
Frameworks and tools can help organizations to build a longlist of material topics that may affect the business model, operations and strategy of the organization.
Annual impact and evidence of interest review
Who
How
Effort
Low to Medium
After defining their materiality boundaries, organizations benefit in setting annual reviews where cross-functional feedback is collected and processed to address evidence of interest in additional topics.
Simulation/sensitivity analysis tool
Who
How
Roll out training programmes to assess the sensitivity analysis tool/simulation tool
Effort
High
A simulation tool or sensitivity analysis tool based on risk assessment software supports organizations at analyzing and modeling risks and opportunities.
Integrated consolidated information dashboard
Who
How
Initial change management process supported by training programmes to push all departments to consolidate data and information with one voice
Effort
High
Adopting integrated dashboards is a key tool for providing data that measures an organization’s progress towards delivering its strategic objectives using KPIs. Organizations also say that working towards an integrated dashboard has significantly helped them in their integrated thinking journeys, allowing them to assess and communicate interdependencies internally and report them externally.
Integrated consolidated information dashboard
Who
How
Initial change management process supported by training programmes to push all departments to consolidate data and information with one voice
Effort
High
Integrated dashboards can be a key tool to collect data to measure the value an organization has created, preserved or eroded over time across their material capitals. An integrated consolidated information dashboard allows organizations to collect and consolidate information in a unique form.
Analyzing the organization’s contribution to the SDGs
Who
How
Initial change management process supported by training programmes to push all departments to consolidate data and information with one voice
Effort
High
Assessing the distinct contribution an organization can make to the SDGs supports organizations in also shedding light and starting working on their impacts.
Integrated consolidated information dashboard
Who
How
Initial change management process supported by training programmes to push all departments to consolidate data and information with one voice
Effort
High
Adopting integrated dashboards is a key tool to delivering data that can be regularly assessed against strategic objectives and ultimately against the purpose of an organization. Organizations also say working towards an integrated dashboard has significantly helped them in their integrated thinking journeys, allowing them to assess and communicate interdependencies internally and report them externally.
Internal consolidated methodology booklet
Who
How
Change management process on data collection regarding sustainability-related data
Effort
Medium to High
An internal consolidated methodology booklet can establish and regulate the approach, methodology and consolidation adopted to compute sustainability-related data by defining indicators, KPIs and reporting processes to be followed.
Table of reference of the <IR> Framework
Who
How
Initial induction and training programme on the <IR> Framework and application
Effort
Medium
Allows an organization to build a structured process to develop its integrated report.
Creating a core integrated thinking group
Who
How
Effort
High
Setting up a core integrated thinking group drives teams to work collectivity and break down functional siloes by championing connectivity.