The drumbeat for corporate social responsibility continues to grow. The Harvard Business Review has initiated a debate about “the lack of coherence in most firms’ attempts to be socially responsible.” Click here to read the article that launches the debate.

According to HBR, leaders need to think in terms of externalities, which is the “effect of a purchase or use decision by one set of parties on others who did not have a choice and whose interests were not taken into account.” In other words, take ownership of your impact.

The Baldrige Criteria ask how you do that through questions in the Leadership category:

• How do you consider societal well-being and benefit as part of your strategy and daily operations?

• How do you consider the well-being of environmental, social, and economic systems to which your organization does or may contribute?

These are birth-to-grave questions about the design, production, delivery, service, and destruction/recycling of your products, facilities, and equipment. Or, if you don’t manufacture anything, of your operations. You answer the questions as part of strategic planning and your design processes and you manage and measure your performance as part of process management.

The first step is to identify your externalities. The best time to do that is during the design stage, when you can modify the design to reduce your impact, but even if that window has closed, you still need to determine what your externalities are. Only then can you start to take ownership of your impact.

To read more about corporate social responsibility, click on these articles:

• Sustainability: A Business Imperative
• How to Build a Culture of Social Responsibility
• New Guidelines for Social Responsibility
• Another Sign That Green is Mainstream
• Purpose-Inspired Growth
• Corporate Social Responsibility

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