Last month I shared my fondness for Net Impact’s report on Business Skills for a Changing World: An Assessment of What Global Companies Need from Business Schools. In it, Net Impact identifies some of the core skills needed by business school students to prepare them better for future employment in companies with strong sustainability agendas. If you haven’t read it already, go ahead and thank me later.
All of this talk about skill building got me thinking about a scene from a movie I watched a few years back called The Brothers Bloom. The scene features a quirky character who, inspired by those around her, puts her mind to collecting a vast array of nifty hobbies.
Confession: the break dancing bit makes me giggle every time haha.
In some ways, the scene is a great analogy for taking this year to pursue graduate studies. While I have my own ideas about what I ought to be learning, my journey is constantly guided by new insights that come to light, inspiring people I encounter and salient reports like the one from Net Impact. When combined, they represent the unique collection of experiences that are continuously informing the skills I build and ultimately who I am as a sustainability professional.
So without further ado, in no particular order, I present to you the top 10 skills that I’ll be working to add to my collection over the next few months. Stay tuned for posts detailing my adventures along the way or sign up for instant updates!
- Life Cycle Analysis
- Sustainability Science
- Sustainability Indicators and Metrics
- Green Accounting
- Gravitas and Communications
- Sustainability Across the Value Chain
- Sustainability and Risk Management
- Sustainability Reporting
- Systems Thinking and Negotiating
- Embedding Sustainability into Organizational Culture
Have you added any skills to your collection lately? If so, what where they and how did you go about acquiring them? Feel free to leave a comment below.
