E023 - Adam Garfunkel from Junxion Strategy

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So, um, hi Adam, thank you so much for joining the show. It's an absolute pleasure and I'm really looking forward to talking to you. I mean, we've known each other for a few years now. We've known each other through the B Corp network and, um, yeah, so welcome to Green Element Podcast. Tell us a bit about your purpose and who you work with, a bit about yourself as an organization.

Okay. Yeah, great to be here, Will. So Junction with an X, Junction Strategy. I always say Junction with an X. It's, it's like when I say my name, Adam Garfunkel, as in Simon and. It's a kind of— it's the way it always goes. Anyway, Junction with an X. Junction with an X. Our purpose as a business is to accelerate the shift to the next economy. And by the next economy, we mean one that is just and inclusive and good for people and the planet. And so we help leaders build the success stories of the next economy. So essentially our job is to help the people who are running organizations do a better job and of whatever they need to do and become what we think of as the success stories of that next economy. And that's— you mentioned B Corp, Will. I mean, certainly that thinking of us as certified B Corps being kind of exemplars of better business, exemplars of the new way of doing business, of marrying profit and purpose, definitely informed our thinking that we want to help other people kind of be those success stories, be those exemplars of the next economy. So that's, that's our thinking. We do that in lots of different ways. I've started to talk about it as PISA, but we're not Italian. I think of it as PISA. So we help organisations articulate their purpose, plan for impact, share their stories, and demonstrate accountability for the difference they've made.

Ah.

So that's brilliant.

Can you give us an example of the sort of work that you do and what sort of impact it had?

Yeah, sure. So we, we might— so if I start with purpose, for example, so we might help an organization work out what it stands for and why it's in business and how it can bring a social perspective, a social purpose into what it does. So if I think of an example in that sphere, we were approached by Heart of the City. Do you know them?

No.

They're a responsible business network that operates in London, and they were formed by the Corporation of London, the City of London Corporation, and City Bridge Trust to galvanize small businesses to take responsible business or CSR more seriously. And so they run a bunch of training courses and so on in this. And we were asked by them to help them with working out how to do a better job of their marketing and their outreach to get more small businesses to sign up for their 2-year course. And at the beginning of that process, we thought, you know what, you've actually got to work out why you're doing this and what you're doing, how you're doing it. before you can do any outreach, any marketing on the back of it. Because if you're not clear about your purpose upfront, Yeah. then it doesn't make sense and you're not telling the right stories. So we effectively did that piece of branding thinking, that architecture for them, and worked out their purpose and mission and vision before we went into creating a communications plan for them for how they could go into their outreach. And so they are currently recruiting, next year's intake. And any small businesses who are listening, they should know that the first year is free. Lots of great valuable workshops. I've done one before, so I can tell it's really good. And we— so they've already had, I think, 15 companies sign up. I think they're looking for 70-odd. to join the cohort next year, so they're ahead of where they've been in any previous year in terms of their recruitment. So I'd like to think that's a measure of impact of the difference we've made.

That's brilliant, that's brilliant. I think it shows there's such a take-up of organisations trying to do that, isn't there?

Yeah, absolutely, and I think businesses of all sizes recognise that there's such something going on. I mean, they may— you know, you and I work in this space, we talk to larger companies who maybe, you know, have had longer to think about it or more need to think about it all the time and maybe have tried some things and are sort of further down the road. But I think any business of any scale recognizes that there's something going on, that businesses need to be more responsible, they need to create a better workplace for their people. They need to demonstrate how they're having a positive impact in their local community, how they're doing good work for the environment, or at least reducing the harm to the environment that comes with their business. I think even 5, 6-person businesses— if I think about my friend Kieran, runs an architect practice, and he came to me and said, I've been thinking about what we've been doing in my business, been running it for 20 years, been thinking about my legacy. I'm thinking about how we can make more of a difference in the world. And I want us to do something more about the environment in our architecture practice. And that was his starting point. You know, nothing more precise than that. And it was informed by a rather personal experience he had of a beautiful place in the world that has now been trashed thanks to deforestation.

Right.

A place he traveled with his wife years ago that now is unimaginably different in a horrible way. And, and he thought, that's not right. And what can I do running a small business to have some measure of impact in this, in this area? So again, with him, we did a piece of work. It was all about how do you bring environmental thinking into your architect's business? And that was partly some very practical things and partly a piece of work around Articulating his purpose, their purpose, and what they're trying to do day to day.

That's so important, so important. So what would you say Junction with an X is their superpower?

What's our superpower? Well, it is the junction function, Will.

I've just realized the junction is junction.

Exactly, exactly.

I've never even thought about that.

So it is all that. It is— it's— I think we bridge, we bridge divides. We come from different sectors. We think the future is for companies to have, you know, a blended mission, right? Some of them, they've got to be commercial, but they've got to be environmentally responsible. And we come from those backgrounds. We make those links. We live in both worlds. I used to be a campaigner for Friends of the Earth and fundraiser for Greenpeace back in the day. So I'm a I'm an activist at heart. I want to see the world be made better, and I think companies have a responsibility to step up. But now I work as a consultant to companies. I'm that critical friend. So I'm not waving the placard outside a building kind of saying, do this, change that. I'm saying, let me help you. And by the way, if you try and do something kind of inauthentic or express something in a kind of clunky way, I've got the ear and the background to let you know that that's not going to work. And you better, you know, so I can be that critical friend. So I think it's that junction function. I think it's because we come from those worlds and because we marry sustainability thinking with marketing communications expertise. So, you know, we're comfortable in the boardrooms, but we're comfortable on the front lines. We're comfortable writing marketing campaigns for businesses, but we're also comfortable writing letters, as my business partner Mike did it in Vancouver, writing letters that get 1,000 businesses to oppose the pipeline that the Canadian government wants to build through British Columbia and out to the beautiful BC coast. So we can play both those roles. But I think when it comes to work and projects, it's that we then bring those skills to bear in a really important way. So we can help you uncover your purpose, but because we really know our stuff in that world, we can help make sure it's done in a meaningful way. So we can help you share your stories, but we can help you write the honest, credible report on your performance. It isn't just kind of marketing, but it's actually genuinely kind of warts and all, honest reporting on the difference you've made. So we can play both of those.

Do you miss your activist days? Do you look back on them and go, God, I wish I was doing that? Or are you— I mean, I know you clearly love what you're doing now, but You know, it is a difference working in the corporate world.

It is different. I mean, do I miss it? You know, it's difficult. I've thought about this quite a lot. I miss being 20-something.

Don't we all?

Like, I mean, so the 2 things happened at the same time in my life, right? So, you know, it was a lot of fun. And I'm not sure how much of that would have been you know, was fun because I was 20-something and how much it was fun because I was an activist. So, so that's definitely part of it. But I, you know, I definitely get a lot of kicks out of the work I do now. I enjoy— we say one of our company values is to be courageous, and, and we explicitly say and advise and train our staff in speaking truth to power. So that activist mindset is embedded in our values as a consultancy. So, and it, you know, it would be, wouldn't it? I mean, I guess that's where we come from. That's who we are. So I guess I don't miss it in that way. And I think the other thing that I do do is I've spent a lot of time and effort, certainly in the last 10 or so years. But ever since I left frontline campaigning, I've worked quite a lot in my local community to try and make my local community a better, more thriving place. So when I stopped being a campaigner at Friends of the Earth, I became— I was active in my local Friends of the Earth group for about 10 years, and then for about 10 years now I've been on the board of trustees of a flagship arts centre near where I live called Jackson's Lane. And for the last 6 years, I've been a school governor at the local primary school where I'm now chair of governors. So I, um, it's not quite the same as being an activist, but it is in a way. It's being—

You're doing stuff.

I'm doing stuff in the voluntary sector to make them, you know, to kind of make the world a better place. And I do it in my community largely, and then on a more global scale through my work.

Brilliant, brilliant. A hard act to follow.

Well, I don't know about that. I, you know, I certainly make lots of mistakes along the way, but it is important to me. And I mean, one of the things— you'll have been here too, Will— one of the things we do when companies go through the B Impact Assessment is you look at your community engagement work, and we're very clear that we want to be active in the communities where we live and where we work. So it's important for us to be individually active in our communities, and I take that very seriously, as I've just said, but also to be active in the communities of interest where we operate. So we are deliberately active contributors to the B Corp community in the UK. Of course, you are too. And that's part of the culture, I think, of the community is to be active. But I'm very, you know, I'm very proud to be a B Corp ambassador. I'm very proud to sit on the working group helping look at the next version of the B Impact Assessment and give some feedback on what I think it should include and could include to be better and more useful. All of those things I think are important. My business partner, Mike, is based in Vancouver. He's on the board of the Social Venture Network, which is the largest collection of social entrepreneurs and impact investors in North America. He's helping them be a better organization. And we feel that's really important to kind of show up and be engaged in your community, whether it's physical to where you live or your professional community. And I think that's what, you know, we're trying to be— those exemplars that we talked about earlier— we're trying to be you know, show the way towards a better way of doing business.

We've veered off track slightly, but that's a good thing. That's a really good thing. I just want to— what I'd like to know is how you engage your staff, suppliers, customers with your mission and purpose. What sort of things do you do to engage them?

Yeah, I mean, we're, you know, we're a bit of an odd fish, I think, in a way, because we, you know, we live and breathe this stuff. So I'm not wearing it now, but I wear that big talk badger to parties, Will.

So do I. Brilliant. I'm glad you're as sad as I am. I wear the t-shirt out and about. I've actually got it on today.

Exactly. So it is a bit of a kind of, you know—

Cult?

No, I shouldn't say that.

That's what my wife calls it. Yeah. No, but it is about a thing that you sort of live and breathe all the time. So you couldn't— I don't think you'd work here if you didn't wouldn't work with Green Element either if you weren't values-aligned, right? If you didn't want to do the kind of work that we do. So you're pushing a very open door in terms of engaging staff, is my point. They're keen and interested to hear. So in terms of more down-to-earth ways, I mean, we have a number of systems and processes that we have in place, partly because We're based all across Canada and the UK as well, and a very small team in lots of different places. But we have a number of systems and processes in place to remind us about what we're doing. So for example, we— and why we're doing it. We have a strategic plan that we look at about how we're developing the business. And we spend every 2 weeks, we spend an hour checking in on how we're doing. Part of that is around our mission, how we're living it. We have an annual summit every year. We just did it for the first time last year in June, last financial year for us, where we all got together and we did a strategic review of the business and thought about what we're trying to achieve and what our ambition is. So Mike and I, we decided that one of the things we were going to change was to be a little bit more open with everyone about the, frankly, the financial you know, state of the business, what we were aiming for in financial terms. So really being open about that and including staff in that. So if anyone's got any great advice about profit share schemes, I'd love to hear it because that's what we're currently exploring, for example, in order to really bring people on board with what we're trying to do and attract and retain good people.

Have a read of Reinventing Organizations.

Yeah. Yes, I've had that mentioned to me before. Thanks, I should pick that up. And so when we go out and talk to clients, I think we're in the room because of who we are and what we do. And in terms of how we engage them in our mission, we're pretty clear upfront in pretty much all our conversations. that we, you know, we want to help them run a better business, and here's what it means to us, and here's what we think it should mean to you. So, for example, when we run purpose workshops, we use our own purpose, mission, and vision as examples. So I often tell people that we exist to accelerate the shift to the next economy because that's our purpose. And then I say, well, our vision is is an economy, this next economy, that's been remade to serve the common good. And our mission, what we do every day to work to create that vision of the world, is to help leaders build the success stories of the next economy. So I just, I just put it all out there, Will. I mean, I just tell people what we're trying to do all the time in our work. So it's unavoidable. Maybe we should speak less and listen more, but that's definitely us. That's who we are.

So when it comes to running an ethical and sustainable business, what would you say has been your biggest struggle so far? And can you tell us a bit about how you've overcome it?

Yeah, this is an interesting question because I think that probably the struggles I've had running a business are probably the same as anyone's had running any kind of business. You know, do I have the right people? Do I have enough money? How's cash flow this month? You know, all of those standard kind of business challenges any small business would face. In terms of the kind of ethical and sustainable aspect of it, I think it must be— it's got to be about people, I think. about making sure you're treating them well, treating them, you know, right, creating the opportunity for them to grow. I think that's, um, one of the most important things about running a business for me is that it embodies a set of values, a way of doing things that I believe in, in my my business partner and I both believe in. And that is, to coin a phrase, about creating decent and meaningful work for people. And you want to create decent and meaningful work and you want them to thrive and grow. And, and that requires of you as a, as a manager, boss, whatever, to find time to coach them.

Hmm.

To find time to coach and develop them.

Yeah.

To be fair to them, to be fair to the demands you're placing on them. And to do that, so to live that value in when you're trying to do everything else you're trying to do, that's the biggest struggle.

Yeah.

And how I've dealt with that, I'm not sure I'm brilliant at it yet. I keep working at it. I think I'm I try and be open. So when I told my direct report Shayla, when I— when we came back from, from the business summit we had in June, I said, I want you to tell me when I'm not giving you the coaching that you need.

Yeah.

So I want to be— I'm happy to be held to account by people who I manage, and I want— I give her permission to do that. Because sometimes I might be distracted and I shouldn't be, and I should be responsible and I should do it myself. But I want her to feel that she can tell me if I'm not giving her the support that she needs to develop. I think that's balancing that, finding time for that. That's been the biggest challenge. So it's, it's about being, you know, recognizing that's important, recognizing that even though it might take longer to delegate or to show someone how to do something, in the long run it's worth it. worth it to you and to them and to the business.

What would be one piece of advice you could give listeners to help them with their purpose, and what would that be?

With their purpose?

Yeah.

Well, there's a classic exercise called the 5 Whys exercise, which is just— so my advice would be keep asking why. Ask why. Yeah, keep asking why. Just ask why you're doing something. Why are you doing that? Why are you doing that? Why? So if you're doing— why do you do that? And a couple of things happen. One is you'll end up with something more and more sort of fundamental about why you're doing what you're doing, which is useful. And the second, the second is if you sort of go, you might go, yeah, why am I doing that? That's not what I was— I don't know, that's a good question, you know. And you might realize that there are things you're doing that you don't need to do. In fact, you don't want to do. And I think to get to your true purpose, you need to keep asking why.

Right, good, cool, brilliant. And when it comes to reducing your environmental impacts and carbon footprint of your business, what would you say your biggest challenge or frustration was?

Well, I mean, the, the biggest challenge is that we're an international business with international clients, which means we get on airplanes. Right.

And do you carbon offset?

Yeah, we do sometimes. I don't think we do it rigorously.

Right.

I think we, you know, if there's a surcharge option, you know, if we buy the ticket or someone else buys the ticket, does it always get ticked? I, you know, I don't know. You know, definitely sketchy on that, Will.

Right.

I think we could do better at that because, I mean, you'll know this better than me, but I'm pretty sure that the amount of electricity that my little laptop uses is inconsequential compared to the fact that, um, let's, you know, last month, uh, this big project we're doing with the United Nations Environment Programme to help produce the communication strategy for the Principles for Responsible Banking, fantastic initiative to get banking aligned with society's goals and needs. Great project. This is huge. Fantastic, lovely project. But, you know, they required me to fly to Singapore and make a bunch of presentations to 28 of the world's largest banks and then fly back again 4 days later.

Yeah, but you know what, you couldn't— that's kind of where you are pushing that change by doing something bad.

No, exactly. So, so no, you're quite right. So, so in our— in terms of our footprint, you know, that's a bad thing to do. But in terms of the work that we do And in a way, to flip the question back, and you've already sort of done this for me. Yeah, of course, by galvanizing, I hope, you know, the World Bank to change the way that they do business so it's more aligned with society's goals as expressed in the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Agreement, that's going to have a massive change, you know, that dwarfs even my ridiculous flight to Singapore and back in terms of footprint. Right. So So it's absolutely about the difference we make with our clients. It's much more significant than our operational footprint.

I'm going to be slightly controversial here. I'm only doing it because I know you. Who's to say we're the right— you know, we're doing the right thing? You know, who is our judgment? Like, is that not slightly narcissistic to say that we can make a judgment call like that?

About the difference we're making?

Yeah, so saying, oh yeah, well, it's okay for us to fly because, you know, we're going to help the banking industry, but it's not okay for someone from another industry to fly somewhere for another meeting.

Yeah, no, I hear you. I think it's a fair challenge. I mean, I think we, you know, it's why you're flying, I suppose, would be the question. What, you know, what are you hoping to achieve? And I could definitely say, well, what I was hoping to achieve was to galvanize a bunch of banks to do more about changing their business strategies so they're more aligned with what society needs. So that's a straightforward one. I guess if you're flying around the world to, I don't know, sell more cars to burn more fossil fuels so more people drive more, it would be a harder equation to draw. But, you know, the last thing I want to do is be pious. I mean, I think that's a real risk.

I know. I just think that, I just know that some people will listen and think that, therefore it's worth noting that I think it is really hard, isn't it? It is really hard to justify what it is that we're doing by that. And I think that not everyone's perfect. And I think, I think as long as you're aware, or not you, you know, one is aware of what the ramifications are, then I think that's a good thing.

Absolutely. I mean, I have to say the other thing I And I think this is probably true of a lot of small businesses today.

We—

our office is in a shared workspace.

Hmm.

And it's great workspace, Launch 22. The guys here are fantastic. I love being here. It's just south of King's Cross. And, you know, how do we know what our share of the electricity bill is when you, you know, a few desks in a shared workspace? It's really hard to work out. So I was wondering, Will, one for you, with your carbon calculator tool that you— I know you've got.

Yeah.

Have you got a way to go into a— say, come here in Launch22, go speak to the guys running the shared workspace and say, let's work out what each small business that's in here, what their share of the total footprint is. Huh?

How do they divvy up the rent? Is it per desk?

Unfortunately, there's a number of different ways. There is per desk, but there's also some people who come in, you know, for a certain amount of time only, and they pay a lower amount, and so on and so forth. There's a couple of different ways.

It would be looking at how they divvy that up and then look at the electricity. And so I would imagine that they will have a meter that is There, and you can now, with Compare Your Footprint, you can now upload any Excel spreadsheet into it and it will sort it all out for you. So you can do all your stationery, you can do all your— so it's, I mean, it's brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant because we've realized that people didn't want to enter this data. They literally just want— and if you're a big— and it's also pay what you want now. We're not charging anything. Well, we are, we're charging 10p or more. PayPal have a 10p minimum. So we've got 10p minimum.

Nice.

And it means then if you're a massive organization, like for example, a massive bank, and you want to find out the carbon footprint of every single organization within your organization, as in all its premises, you can fill out the template, i.e., postcode and all that kind of stuff, upload that, then all your organizations are in the system. And then you just upload all your stuff. And as long as it's got postcode or building name or something that's attributed to it, Our software will now attribute everything and you get Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and then benchmarks.

So I should just tell the guys to get up to log in and send.

Yeah. So this will be ready at the time of this podcast. Um, it's, we're, we're going to Lisbon Web Summit and that's at the beginning of November. It has to be done by then because we're waiting for that.

Awesome. I'll get them to do it.

Cool.

Thank you.

Plug your thing now.

Which is not, as I said before, it's not what it's about. When it comes to reducing and your approach to environmental management, what would you say, how do you approach environmental management and your carbon footprint? I mean, you have talked about it slightly.

Yeah, I mean, I have to say, you know, we don't think it's the most important part of our overall footprint as a business. So I think, you know, we're a consultancy, we're basically desk-based consultants, and we absolutely love it when our staff want to cycle to work. And like I say, they're thinking about that stuff anyway, so some of them just cycle to work. So my job is, oh, can I find a shared office space that's got showers so that when my colleagues cycle to work, they can shower when they get here, right? that's my job. They're already cycling and I don't have time to cycle. So, so, you know, I think there's, there's a limited amount that we do to think about it, if I'm honest. I think we, as I said earlier, we— the challenge in the area where I spend more of my time is thinking, how can I create a workplace where where good, able, smart, values-based people can do their best work.

Yeah.

So I want to create a workplace that facilitates their success and their growth and their impact, positive impact in the world. And that's probably— that definitely takes more of my attention than thinking about You know, uh, how many laptops we run. Yeah, whether we all cycle to work or not.

That's fair enough. I think that makes complete sense. Makes complete sense. So what would you— is there anything you'd like people to take away from this, um, podcast today? Is there a piece of advice you'd like to give or something you'd like people to do, an action?

So this is something I sometimes get companies to do, is to think about, you know, why they're doing what they're doing. So there's a great exercise which is to try and write down the mission of your business in 8 words or less. So to say a verb, who the target population that you're affecting is, and what you're trying to achieve. So verb, target population, outcome, 8 words or less.

Right.

Try doing that. It's really— it's not that easy. Sometimes it's really easy. So the classic example is, you know, a charity might be running campaigns and trying to raise awareness, and they might be lobbying MPs. And if you were to, you know, what are they trying to do? They're trying to save African rhinos from extinction.

Hmm.

That's really clear, really straightforward. Everyone knows within 5 words what their purpose is. If you can get to that kind of degree of clarity about what your purpose is, you're in a really, really strong place to go forward and build all of your, you know, communications and impact measurement on the back of it. So, 8 words or less, what are you trying to do? Work it out.

Brilliant. Well, thank you so much, Adam. Is there a place that we can go to to find more about Jnction with an X?

Yeah, junctionwithanx.com. Yeah, plenty there, lots of great articles. So you can subscribe to our newsletter, you get something thoughtful and provocative in your inbox once a week.

And it's really good, I like reading them.

Thanks, good to hear. Yeah, that's it.

And we'll put everything in the podcast notes. So thank you so much, Adam.

No probs.

Really kind.

Thank you. Yeah, happy to do it. All right, well, take care. See you soon.

Thanks so much for listening.

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