Procurement, the Social Value Act and Organisational Change

Simon Cohen, Business Development Manager at Aress Software started the following Linked In conversation:

Legislation such as the Social Value Act in the UK appears to be becoming more important in public procurement – with a company’s social value/social impact seemingly having significant weight in the tendering process and directly influencing whether or not it is chosen by a public body as a supplier. To what degree is this trend toward measuring social value/social impact changing the way companies behave e.g. in terms of corporate social responsibility? What impact does this have on change management?

Heidi De Wolf, Principal OD Consultant at Future Catalyst replied:

The consideration should be three-fold in my view. First there is the Environmental impact of any change initiative. Regardless of the change initiative Change Managers/Agents are involved in there will be an opportunity to consider environmental impact, and it could be as simple as not printing off papers (digital by default) or as significant as using recycled materials for a major engineering project. 

The second is Social. Change is driven by people and people are social beings. It is important for Change Agents to consider how they involve people with the change initiative. Here too we could be talking about a simple engagement survey, which in my view is fairly tokenistic but has its place, or as significant as co-creating solutions. The less tokenistic the engagement activity, the better the ownership over the change/transformation. 

The third is Economic. Change has a significant economic imprint. When you consider change as a project, many change projects will fail as usually people throw money at creating change momentum, but rarely does it lead to sustainability. When you consider change as an important and necessary part of the fabric of any organisation, change agents will approach the initiatives with a very different thinking hat. As mentioned above, change is driven by people who bring to it their thoughts and energy, which should be the new currency for many organisations who want to embrace continuous change/ improvement. 

Only by considering these three elements will change initiatives add more long-term Social Value and help develop a culture of continuous improvement and even innovation.

Simon:

Very interesting. Of course, procurers in the public sector are looking at how their suppliers impact society e.g. through employment, CSR acts such as charitable giving, activities in the local community etc. If an organisation is not used to this kind of activity on a corporate-wide level it can create a real change-management issue.

Heidi

I agree, what is worse is that everyone - from top to bottom - should have consideration for Social Value, not just procurement. We do not only silo our organisations, but through it silo our knowledge, creating 'experts' who hoard knowledge instead of placing knowledge somewhere where people can access it 'on demand', as and when it is relevant to them. We should 'co' everything, e.g. co-learn, co-produce, co-own, co-develop etc, and truly make workplaces 'human communities' again.

Simon:

Ideally, there should be a framework within the organisation on creating social value which everyone can refer to. This framework should provide guidance on what kind of social value fits in with the organisation's values, objectives etc. and how this can be achieved. 

But at the same time the organisation has to bear in mind its responsibility to its shareholders to deliver shareholder value. Often, these two kinds of value can be at odds with each other.

Heidi:

There is nothing more powerful than aligning both value creation activities, as organisational misalignment only causes unhelpful tensions which lead to tokenism and poor performance in relation to Social Value. Social Value is not a 'nice-to-have', it is a necessity if organisations want to contribute to a stronger local and national economy. 

As citizens, your shareholders (and employees) will also benefit from any Social Value commitments your organisation makes and in an ever more consciencious society, organisations who care about the economy, the environment and people will WIN long-term!