Insight: What’s the role of bank employees in helping their banks transition more rapidly?
As part of the publication of the brand new Catalysing Bank Climate Action: Lessons from the Inside report, we share key insights, lessons and anonymised case studies in this blog series.
This excerpt from the report explores how climate intrapreneurs can play a unique and much-needed role in a bank’s transition from climate being no-one’s job, to someone’s job, to everyone’s job - especially when there isn’t yet a top-down mandate for a bank to transform itself to align with climate goals.
To read this insight in full, download the report using the button at the bottom of the page.
Climate intrapreneurs can be the genesis energy for change
Many Fellows joined our programme eager to gain technical knowledge that would help them take practical action on climate in their banks. As we progressed through the Fellowship, this gave way to a recognition that the knowledge they have is only one piece of the puzzle. Three key themes emerged as important tactics for catalysing transformation from within a bank:
Gain clarity on what is within your control to change
Build collective influence with a network of internal and external allies
Foster the buy-in of decision-makers
Climate intrapreneurship strategies in banks - Finance Innovation Lab, 2022
Self: Gain clarity on what is within your control to change
No single employee has all the knowledge, skills, relationships or time needed to transition a bank on their own. To make the biggest difference with what they do have, it is critical for a climate intrapreneur to identify the most impactful role they can play.
Climate intrapreneurs can gain clarity on the specific role they can play when they:
Identify activities where they can have the greatest impact.
Embrace experimentation over perfection.
Maintain personal wellbeing for long-term effectiveness.
Allies: Build collective influence with a network of allies
Intrapreneurs often feel like they are powerless to make much of a difference on their own, but once they experience themselves as part of a wider movement for a shared goal, change can and does happen.
Climate intrapreneurs can build collective influence through:
Identifying and convening allies.
Facilitating action by and between others.
Listening deeply and asking powerful questions.
Influencers: Foster the buy-in of decision-makers
In established institutions such as banks, decisionmaking about wholesale change tends to sit with those holding formal power. Within banking, many of these formal power-holders tend to have limited time and competing priorities, and so intrapreneurs find themselves asking questions like:
How can I influence colleagues who are senior to me, when I don’t have the experience or expertise that might earn their respect?
I’m several steps removed from the CEO, what can I do to influence their decisions?
Rather than looking at this as a question of power, it can be helpful to see those decisionmakers as holders of responsibility – colleagues who have a duty to make the right decisions.
Top tactics for working with and influencing decision-makers:
Cultivate curiosity to build deep understanding.
Use both stories and data.
Bring outside voices in.
Ensure changes are locked-in.
Pay attention to timing and context.
For full details on exactly how climate intrapreneurs can deploy these tactics, with tangible examples of where CSLN Fellows have had success, download the full report.