#Inside
November 25, 2024
Andre Viljoen: Leadership as a Driver of Transformation
I decided to challenge myself by taking part in this year’s Innov8, ENL Innovation Challenge, which aims to foster a culture of innovation across the ENL group. I will share with you some key insights and thoughts arising from my weekly experience there.
One of the most important things in life is ‘decision-making’, and every choice involves making the right decision. Every day, we make choices in our lives that affect the environment, the climate and other species. I believe that understanding the way we make decisions can help nudge us into making sustainable choices.
Life is indeed a series of choices that we make every single day, and these choices have consequences that will directly affect us and those around us, in a good or bad way, and now more than ever considering the ecological, economic and human aspects of things since the ideation process itself leads to solutions with an overall benefit. It also suggests that people carefully sort through information about the different options that are available to them and make better choices.
Innovate with the sustainability mindset
“Sustainability” is much more than a buzzword. It is important for a very simple reason: we cannot maintain our quality of life as human beings, the diversity of life on Earth, or Earth’s ecosystems by our established set of behaviours… We must innovate to ensure we make the change. For innovation to effectuate sustainability, a close connection between ‘corporate and individual purpose’ is required. A clear direction is needed for employees to recognise how sustainability fits into the company’s goals.
Being aware that whatever choice we decide on doing in the present day can impact how our life will play out in the future is already a step ahead. Embracing this mindset and acting on it have several benefits: improving the quality of our lives, efficiency at work leading to cost savings, healthier workplaces, protecting our ecosystem and preserving natural resources. At ENL, we believe that Innovation is a key component leading to sustainable choices. We define ‘Sustainable Innovation’ as “using a different perspective to generate a value adding idea that can be scalable and implementable while having a positive human, ecological and economic impact.”
Why did I take part in Innov8 ?
Taking part in Innov8 personally means embracing the intrapreneurial mindset, going out of my comfort zone and acquiring the necessary tools to make a positive impact within my organisation, my community, my country… and why not change the world?
