How to keep People and Planet Metrics Alive When Profit Hunters Take Over
Imagine you’re in a perfect project that balances people, planet, and profit. But as deadlines loom and leadership starts asking, “Where’s the ROI?” it’s easy for people and the planet to take a backseat.
How do you keep people and the planet front and center, even when the pressure to deliver short-term profits mounts and profit hunters start to dominate the conversation?
As innovation managers, designers, business developers, or any sort of change agents, we all know the early stages of a project are full of idealism. We design solutions that benefit people, reduce environmental impact, and generate value. But somewhere along the way, that broader vision can so easily get diluted.
Here are a few tricks I’ve learned on how you can integrate the triple bottom line into your innovation process—and keep it from getting lost:
Treat it as a Non-Negotiable Metric
At the start and in every stage gate or review, ensure people and the planet are embedded as a key metric alongside financial ones. This means making it part of your performance dashboard—just like revenue and market share. This way, when leadership pushes for profitability, you show how the metrics affect each other and why cutting sustainability corners would undermine long-term success (and them).Speak their Language - Translate it into Financial Value
Often, leadership shifts focus to profit because they don’t see the immediate financial upside of social or environmental initiatives. Bridge that gap by translating people and the planet into financial language. Language is the barrier to overcome! Highlight cost savings, such as energy efficiency or waste reduction, and link employee engagement or customer loyalty to improved business performance. For example, point to data that shows how lower turnover or higher customer satisfaction (people) drives profitability over time.Align with Corporate KPIs
If your leadership is focused on growth, show how sustainable innovations can open new markets, attract new customers, or tap into talent that values purpose-driven work. Making sure people and the planet are not seen as an “extra” but as a strategic enabler of the company’s overarching objectives is key. That’s your money slide!
OK, so even with people, planet, and profit metrics jointly in place, you’ll likely face pushback from leaders who prioritize profit over other outcomes. Here’s how to handle that curveball:
Reframe Trade-offs closer to their heart: When leadership starts talking about cutting costs or speeding up timelines, it’s often because they’re seeing people and planet goals as a trade-off with profitability. Reframe the conversation by showing how the social and environmental elements enhance the project’s long-term viability. For instance, emphasize that cutting corners now on environmental sustainability could lead to higher regulatory costs or reputational damage later. And show how it would affect them, nothing hurts more than when gets close to home!
Short-Term Wins for Long-Term Impact: If your leadership is laser-focused on short-term profits, identify quick people and planet wins that also generate immediate value. This could be a pilot that cuts waste, improves efficiency, or boosts employee engagement, and delivers a near-term benefit. You know the long game, give them the quick wins.
But remember innovation or change doesn’t end with the launch of a new product, service or business model. Keeping people and the planet alive means:
Building it into Post-Launch Performance Metrics: Whether it’s monitoring the social impact on customers or tracking the environmental benefits over time, don’t let them fade away once you hit the market. Keep the feedback loops active and use the data to show leadership the full scope of the project’s success. Communication is your weapon of choice now!
As a change leader, you're often asked to balance the mere impossible—delivering groundbreaking ideas while meeting profit targets. But when people, planet, and profit metrics are integrated from the start and managed with the same rigor as financial metrics, and you communicate in a language profit hunters understand, it becomes not just another framework but a competitive advantage.
Give it a try!
Written by Tove Chevalley
Co-founder Formation. My days are filled with writing, listening, and connecting people, problems and tools. Anything that makes growth more sustainable, for people, the planet, and business.
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