My 2 Commitments

 

I believe that companies and organisations have the power to change the world. They can either contribute to human and ecological disasters, or adopt new, more respectful ways of thinking and acting that contribute to their ecosystem.

I remain convinced that organisations can have a real impact on our future and have the levers to act.

My job is to support managerial change, and my wish is to move in that direction. So, I asked myself what I could do at my level: what can Yinsight do to help change the world with the means at its disposal?

That isn’t really an esay question to answer and it took me some time to figure out what I was willing to commit to. It’s easy to commit and give when it doesn’t come at any personal cost or effort, so I pondered about what was important to me and that I would uphold no matter what.

For the last few years, I have been making a practical contribution to changing the world in two ways:

 

1) I provide work for people with disabilities.

I’ve set up a partnership with a specialised establishment, the ESAT in Saint-Sébastien sur Loire. They offer work opportunities for disabled people. After each Lego® Serious Play® workshop, they recondition my sets for my next customers ensuring each set is complete.

It’s a job that’s particularly well-suited to disabled employees, and one that earns me big, amused smiles from them: for them, I’m the man who plays with Lego for work.

I’ve since found a solution that might be less expensive for my workshops, but I’ve decided to continue using these kits and to have them reconditioned because I feel that by doing so, I’m contributing to the community in my own way. What’s more, it makes sense for me because I’m also disabled following a road accident.

 

2) I make up for my flights by planting trees

 

I often travel by plane to see my clients and I was looking for a way of offsetting this following a mistake on my part: I made a mistake on my booking for a flight from Brussels to Nantes and the only way I could get home that day was to fly from Brussels to Barcelona to Nantes! I felt as though all my carbon footprint efforts for the year had been swallowed up, and I thought I’d like to do something for our planet, as I don’t see how I can replace my flights with other alternatives. I already do a lot of my work remotely, and for some assignments I have to be physically present.

Today, every month I record the hours I fly, and I contribute $3 per flight hour to the One Tree Planted website. This contribution is non-negotiable for me and does not depend on my end of year financial results; I take it into account in my balance sheet. If I can give more, then I give more.

Planting trees is in line with my childhood dream of buying huge tracts of land to plant forests. My childhood utopia, unrealistic given my current means, has been transformed into a lever for action that I can afford.

If you want to help support my commitments…

 

You can donate here: https://businesspartners.raisely.com/t/mark-harlings-team

I support projects that help communities by planting trees. On the One Tree Planted website, you can choose the country and the project you want to support.

I also chose this organisation because it relies on volunteers and so my money plants trees instead of paying salaries, as is the case with many initiatives.