Sustainability in Everything

The animal in the picture has to balance on all directions. She also has to strike the right speed, and neither be too slow nor too fast. If she does not, she will at best have a difficult time course correcting, or at worst fail in the endeavor. In short, she needs to progress sustainably.

Sustainability is sometimes postponed and sometimes forgotten knowingly or unknowingly. Sustainability is researched and implemented in certain domains. However, I think it can be applied to everything that you do daily.

In my opinion, once you have identified a solution, sustainability should be one of the first questions that you need to answer. In this blog, we will look at why I think so.

Macro examples

The below list has a few goals and the factors at play. The various factors need to be balanced for sustainable progress on the goals.

Goals | Factors that need to be balanced

• GDP | Profit vs People vs Planet
• Environment protection | Planet vs People vs Profit
• Usage of Nuclear Energy | Cost vs Safety
• Population management | Too high vs Too low, Pros and cons of a 1 child policy
• Usage of LED bulbs | Energy saved vs Environment risk while disposing of them

The examples above show us that there must be a balance between all the factors at play. If you focus on 1 aspect, the others will be affected. Eventually, you will always be forced to find the right balance. If you focused on only profit in the 1st example, then the People and Planet will be affected. This will in the long-term lead to us not achieving the original goal of GDP.

In another example, there have been experiments which were very people focused compared to the economy. These also met with failures compared to other options where there was a healthy balance between People and Economy.

We are never taught about sustainability

At least in recent decades, we are never taught about sustainability on a regular or a rigorous manner. We have heard about it with regards to the environment, social responsibility etc. but not how we can apply the same in our day to day work or life.

In all the use cases above, if the proponents of the solutions had pondered the sustainability question much earlier, they could have avoided costly side-effects.

Examples in real life

Let us now take a few examples that apply to our personal lives.

Health and Fitness

It is a no brainer that you need to focus on fitness and be healthy. On the contrary, the following article says that if it is not done sustainably, then it can also lead to problems.

As Workouts Intensify, a Harmful Side Effect Grows More Common

@Work

You hear a lot about work-related anxiety and people burning out on the job. There is a lot of truth to this. On the other hand, you also see people who do not live up to their potential. Over time, they get a sense of having missed out on growth or job satisfaction. This also leads to some stress. This aspect is usually delayed stress as opposed to the immediate stress caused due to burnout. Hence, I have rarely seen people talk about this aspect.

Sometimes this also manifests as work hard vs work smart debate. If you strike the right balance, then you can be sustainable.

Product releases vs Engineering Excellence

In the software industry, we run into the need to balance these two constantly. When there is a healthy balance between the two, then the organization grows sustainably. When only one factor is given more weight, we are always forced to course correct. If we are too slow, then competitors are going to take over. If we release quickly but the products are of lesser quality, again competitors will take over. Eventually, we will be forced to strike the right balance.

Why is it so hard to be sustainable?

When you are walking a rope as in the 1st picture, you get the feedback immediately. Hence, you are aware and at least try to be sustainable.

On the other hand, in most of the other life examples, you don’t get the feedback for months or even years. Since the time period is long, you might also attribute other reasons other than sustainability. This will lead us in the direction of fixing something else.

Hence, even without immediate feedback, you need to be aware that you need sustainability, which is not that easy!

What can you do?

1. Ask the sustainability question early enough. For example: If you work for 18 hours a day, can you sustain that? On the other hand, if you are not putting in a sustained effort, will you do justice to your potential and will the market allow you to sustain that?
2. Plan for sustainability rather than be forced to do it. You may also not have an opportunity if it is too late. For example: If you know you are adding technical debt to a project, commit to fixing it in a time-bound manner and put that also into the roadmap.
3. Repeat the above every day and with everything that you do

Summary

In any use-case, there is no solution that is a pure win with no side-effects. Every single time, there will be other factors that need to be balanced.

You need to be aware of this, ask the question early and often as to whether what you are doing is sustainable. If what you are doing is not sustainable, you will be forced to course correct eventually, and this won’t be on your terms.

The better way is to do it on your terms. Set a timeline to set things to be sustainable and follow through.

Happy balancing on your terms and living and working sustainably!