Canadian psychologist Albert Bandura once said: “Where everyone is responsible, no one is really responsible.” The underlying principle of his theory is that when a task or responsibility is assigned to everyone as a collective, individuals may be less inclined to take personal responsibility, assuming that someone else will handle it.
Well, the senior folks at LEGO will be hoping that Bandura was talking nonsense when he uttered those words, having just announced that a percentage of bonuses will be tied to ESG performance for ALL salaried employees. That’s effectively making 18,000 employees responsible for sustainability!
Team LEGO busying themselves with sustainability stuff
We’ve known for a while that consumers believe it’s the responsibility of brands and businesses to deal with the sustainability issues that they have been so instrumental in creating. And some businesses have responded more enthusiastically than others – with many implementing ESG-linked bonuses for their top execs, albeit with disappointing results. Perhaps this is to be expected when only 25% of execs have their performance tied to environmental impact and 90% are measured on annual results rather than anything longer-term – which sustainability so obviously is. But LEGO’s initiative aims to drive responsibility across every level and function of the organisation – a bold, pioneering move that will be interesting to watch.
It raises plenty of questions: does everybody know enough about the topic to make the best decisions? Is the sustainability strategy sufficiently clear and embedded at every level? What happens if financial performance stalls in pursuit of the sustainability targets? And perhaps most critically of all, will Bandura be proved right: will everyone assume that everybody else is dealing with it and therefore not bother?
Time will tell....
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