5.3.5. Change Management

The "change management" node had an average level of incidence (n = 27) of relevant statements coded from the 40 participants (using the NVivo software). In terms of key word usage, this thematic (shown in Table 6) tracked "change culture", "behaviours", "innovation" and "communications", all of which provided a large number of insights from participants. In total, they were used 410 times across the 40 interviews. However, the quantification of the data does little to indicate that this contextual issue was one of the best sources of insightful knowledge.

There was general recognition from the participants that the single most important area for ensuring SDG measurement success is having a successful change programme that ensures a practical approach is made to work for the "users", with the added value of what they are doing. The starting point for this approach was ensuring the right culture in the organisation, characterised by openness and honesty about the difficulties of measuring SDGs and also closing the gap between superficial statements of intent without having the evidence to back up what they say they do. For example, participant 15 stated: "[name of company removed] say that they measure against SDGs, but there is a gap between what they say they do and what they actually do".

Innovation was a frequently referenced benefit of getting the change culture right and, in doing so, having the means to address the SDG targets more effectively. For example, participant 11 noted the effect of building long-term supplier relationships that enabled more innovative solutions to be developed: "We wanted to establish meaningful change across the supply chain, and we recognised that, to do this, we had to develop long-term relationships; hence, we contracted on a five, plus five, plus five-year basis. This built longevity into our thinking and allowed true innovation to develop solutions to the bigger sustainable development issues across the environment, driving efficiency and effectiveness."

Communication was also a dominant theme of culture change. Participant 1 noted: "you do not communicate it once, you communicate it nearly every day through many, many different vehicles. You bring people in". Participant 24, a leader of a North American national civil engineers institution, highlighted the value of leaders who can tell stories that resonated with stakeholders: "people with success stories become your spokespeople and they start to influence others, saying 'hey, you know this works for us' rather than just trying to sell the methodology. It is more, you know, encouraging peers, e.g., peer-to-peer". The main focus for this stakeholder engagement for participant 11 was: "Our starting point is understanding what is important to our clients, who want to see us make improvements, and where our staff and employees want to make a difference".

An unexpected but often-quoted issue was on the context of gender influence on SDG measurement. Eight participants (1, 5, 10, 17, 21, 24, 31 and 37) made specific reference to gender impact: "the younger generation really do want to change the world. Interestingly, particularly the female part of that

[company name removed] has more than 50% of its membership as female and I pondered why that should be, and I think it is because it appeals to the values of certainly the younger, but actually to the female, side of our institution, who really want to make a difference to the world that they live in. Probably, they are more driven by that than they are by financial reward".

There were nearly half the participants that promoted the positive effects of harnessing the power of the millennial generation to promote change and thereby help champion the uptake of SDG measurement, which was shared by participant 1: "So, if we can find a way of linking into the power of the younger generation". This attitude was further explored by participant 10, who noted the obvious fact that millennials are tomorrow's leaders: "I think millennials have a role here as new project leaders where often they are the people who are most energised".


**Table 6.** Text analysis (NVivo) on key words' frequency: context of change management.

Finding #8: change management. One of the largest positive impacts for SDG measurement is about engaging, communicating and energising the delivery teams. This involves the internal teams and suppliers. The millennials have a key role to help build and sustain this change momentum.
