We spend 80,000 hours working in our careers in a lifetime. How we spend these hours becomes one of the most important decisions in life. Are we able to solve existing problems and not add to them?  

Many of us aspire to do good, but often do not know where to start or how to go about it. Social issues are usually systemic, complex and can be daunting, especially for an individual beginning on their journey to drive meaningful change.  

That is what brought me to my role in sustainable development and how I became involved in B-Effect and the wider changemaking movement with Joerg. How can we make it easy for colleagues to be involved?  

B-Effect is a program that aims to foster a community of changemakers within the company who are passionate about creating sustainable social impact. 

Education will be essential to jumpstart the momentum for success.  Getting colleagues’ buy-in will be the first hurdle. With the B-Effect program’s learning structure and exposure with social entrepreneurs, colleagues learn to empathize with social issues and become more committed to participate.  

Learning brought clarity to participants. As they became more skillful, colleagues gained confidence to ideate solutions to solve problems. This led to the development of the Match & Chat interactive game. The game is inspired by the need to maintain strong social connections, and its impact on health and longevity.  

Very quickly, everyone began to appreciate the positive feedback loop for being involved in what matters. Outreach engagements increased the sense of responsibility at work. Colleagues realized the impact they can create and how they can bring authentic value to people, animals, and the planet – how good leads to more goodness and growth. Children learn from their parents; parents from their children; colleagues from each other... We were strengthening connections and our collective impact was adding up!  

It is important to make doing good accessible, exciting and inclusive. The benefits will rise exponentially for the individual, organization and the larger community, if we are able to translate our work into meaningful impact. We influence more people than we realize.