Wagner, co-director of the Change Leadership Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of “The Global Achievement Gap”, said the latest challenge facing education essentially puts it between a rock and a hard place. The “rock” is the new set of skills that all students will need for work, learning and citizenship in a knowledge society. The “hard place” is the fact that the Internet generation is differently motivated and educators do not know how to teach this new breed of student all the new skills they will need to succeed in college, in careers and as citizens.

Wagner explained that conventional teaching that worked in a 19^th and 20^th century society focused on factual recall rather than application of knowledge. Schools rely on multiple choice tests because of a single curriculum approach used in the United States: test preparation. He acknowledged that the accountability these tests seek is fine but lamented that “we try to do it on the cheap,” often at the expense of things like field trips and other more experiential learning. As a result, college professors and employers find their charges woefully unprepared.

“In the 21^st century, more important than what you know is what you can do with what you know,” he said. “Multiple choice tests don’t evaluate by asking you to do or show what you know.”

To address this gap between what students know and what they need to know how to do, Wagner has drafted the 7 Survival Skills for Careers, College and Citizenship:

1. Critical thinking and problem solving
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurialism
5. Effective oral and written communication
6. Access and analyze information
7. Curiosity and imagination

Wagner dismisses as a myth the notion that today’s generation of students and young workers are not motivated to work. “They are not unmotivated to work. They are differently motivated.”

He explained that the kids who grew up on the Internet are accustomed to communication that is immediate and always on. The web is something they use for friendships, self-directed learning and self-expression as evidenced by their prolific reporting via Facebook and uploading of videos to YouTube. Everywhere but at school, these young people are constantly connected to create and multitask.

Because they are accustomed to learning on their own and from peers, Wagner noted, this generation has less fear and respect for authority. Specifically they don’t like to be talked down to. But perhaps their most encouraging trait is that they want to make a difference in what they choose as a career and do interesting things.

So how can business help our schools give today’s students what they need so that they enter the work force prepared for what 21^st century society needs? Wagner identified five actions business can take to help provide leadership on education.

• Explain what skills matter most and why. Make it clear that standards should be based on competency over content.
• Lobby for and fund Accountability 2.0 R&D to develop tests that measure the skills that matter most.
• Lobby for higher standards to license and recertify educators so expectations for teachers are those of knowledge workers, not assembly line workers.
• Fund development of model schools where exemplary lessons can be videotaped.
• Ensure that every high school student has a meaningful work internship and adult mentor.

A short video of Wagner’s presentation is available below. Center members can view the full video here (login required).

This evolution has been a major focus of the Community Involvement Leadership Roundtable. Conceived as collaboration between the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship and current and future leaders in corporate community involvement, the Roundtable is an ongoing forum that convenes two to three times a year to identify and understand critical social issues; review changing public policy and public expectations; develop new and more effective community involvement strategies and; create and promote the adoption of new standards of excellence in community involvement.

At the Boston College Center’s 2009 Conference, Roundtable members Barbara Simic (ConocoPhillips Canada); Joyce Witte (EnCana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc); and Kate McAlister (Itron Inc) presented the “New Standards of Excellence in Corporate Community Involvement” to a packed room of conference participants.

They, along with other Roundtable members and Center faculty, have been working for the last year on the development of definitions and indicators for a new Standards of Excellence in Corporate Community Involvement. The original Standards of Excellence were developed more than 10 years ago as a diagnostic tool by the Center to help companies assess their performance.

While the initial standards served community involvement practitioners well they needed to evolve with the field. Roundtable member Pat Garris of State Farm Insurance elaborated: “CI is changing. Most companies know that it is not about balloons and T-shirts. But what they don’t know is what is excellence in the field and how that might compare not only to their past, but what they should aspire to be. The new standards acknowledge that CI is part of the business strategy, but goes on to answer the question, ‘How much of a business partner is CI and who are the collaborative partners as it moves forward and sets goals.’ The previous standards were great as we saw the field move from its infancy, but as the field matures so must the standards.”

The new Standards of Excellence:

Standard I: Leadership
My company is committed to the mutual success of business and the community and demonstrates leadership around this issue both internally and externally.

Standard II: Strategy
My company takes a strategic approach to community involvement to add demonstrable value to the business and to society.

Standard III: Relationship Building
My company builds and maintains trusting and productive stakeholder relationships in the community to advance both business and community goals.

Standard IV: Infrastructure
My company provides the resources and support needed to ensure the successful execution of its community involvement strategy.

Standard V: Measurement and Evaluation
My company measures and evaluates the results and effectiveness of its community involvement programs to improve performance.

Standard VI: Communication
My company effectively and transparently communicates about its community involvement mission, strategy and performance.

Along with the Standards of Excellence themselves comes a Diagnostic Tool that tests a company’s performance against the six standards that can be used to plan improvements going forward. Designed for use by Boston College Center members of all sizes, the Diagnostic Tool is comprised of detailed indicators that measure a company’s performance against each standard.

The Diagnostic Tool can be applied on all levels, from a corporation-wide perspective to business units to individual sites. It can be used to identify absolute strengths and weaknesses and to measure a company against others. It also can be used as an internal benchmarking tool to identify pockets of excellence within an organization as well as areas for improvement. The Standards of Excellence Diagnostic Tool is for Boston College Center members only and can be accessed on the Center web site at http://www.BCCorporateCitizenship.org/standards.

Roundtable member Joyce Witte has witnessed the changes in community involvement since she started in the field 10 years ago and appreciates the importance of the Roundtable updating the Standards of Excellence. “Back then, giving away money was considered a nice gesture and a write off for the company. Now it includes strategy and leadership, relationship building and communication. Boston College has kept pace with this evolving field from the beginning by defining what excellence means. The newly revised Standards of Excellence will again set the high bar for companies to evaluate the effectiveness of their programs for the next 10 years.”

In stark contrast with the spirit of hope that surrounded the conference, the man described by BusinessWeek as “the dean of the corporate responsibility movement” delivered a reminder that our economic condition may not be getting better any time soon, and may well get considerably worse for an extended period.

While John’s message may not have been welcome, it is undeniable that it needs to be heard. Whether we are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel or an approaching train, survival for companies and corporate citizenship will require more than earnest efforts and unbridled optimism.

In an informal keynote address conducted conversation style with Brad Googins, Elkington quickly made the point that “we face profoundly challenging times.” He remarked that while the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s put the squeeze on safety, health, environment and quality, this time around the squeeze will be felt by corporate citizenship.

When Brad asked if things are past the point when institutions, in business or academia, can reform incrementally, Elkington couldn’t agree more strongly. He said that institutions evolve for different reasons and often because of pressure. “We need to actually start breaking things.”

In order to figure out what has to change and to find solutions for moving forward Elkington pointed to the problem-solving approach of Thomas Edison as a guide. Having failed 10,000 times, the Wizard of Menlo Park observed that “at least I know 10,000 things that don’t work.”

“That spirit is lacking,” Elkington said.

Asked his view of where things stand on the environment, the founder of SustainAbility acknowledged there has been profound progress yet conceded climate change may be outrunning our capacity to make a difference. “Some argue it now doesn’t matter what we do but we’ve made vast progress,” said Elkington, adding that the trouble is that addressing climate change has not gotten into our politics or behavior as consumers.

On social issues Elkington sees new expectations because of globalization but feels that unlike the environmental movement that has crystallized around climate change, people working on social issues have not crystallized around one thing.

Elkington encouraged those seeking leaders on any issues to look beyond the usual places, recalling Winston Churchill’s remark that “extraordinary times call for extraordinary leaders.” He said the young people eager to emerge as leaders in corporate citizenship will have to look beyond corporations and take a more entrepreneurial approach with their ambitions.

Elkington said those watching the behavior of business, such as NGOs, may have to shift their focus from the large companies they know and “have loved beating up for years.” He said the spotlight needs to start shining on smaller organizations. “The ones we paid attention to (in the past) may not be the ones that will be important in the future.”

Speaking directly to the fears of his audience, Elkington said that if people in corporate citizenship want jobs in three or four years they will have to demonstrate its value to boards in different ways. He said businesses seeking to address issues and expectations will have to go beyond innovation and find scalable, entrepreneurial solutions. New technologies such as genetic engineering and nanotechnology will be the place to invest in John’s view.

And for those not already shaken up by the economic mess, he stressed that the next wave of change “will be enormously disruptive to industries. The attrition rate will be surprisingly high.” Rather than change and leadership coming from large companies and cascading down to smaller companies and suppliers, the incubators of innovation will be small and medium businesses.

Of course this means the environmental footprint of small companies, which is already substantial, will grow. This comes with problems, Elkington said, as these smaller operations don’t have the people to address the issues they will create. As a result, he said, government will have an important role to play.

The subject of government is where hope and fear collided loudly in John’s remarks. Asked to offer advice to the Obama administration, Elkington first predicted that if the president gets to a second term he will be prematurely aged by the set of social and economic challenges he has to face.

His first piece of advice to the newly minted leader: “Please don’t just focus on the U.S.” Elkington cited the Marshall Plan and the historic international monetary conference at Bretton Woods in 1944 as examples of the kind of leadership needed now from the United States. “Within five to 10 years we will have to take apart the United Nations and redo Bretton Woods to address things like climate change.”

Secondly, Elkington urged President Obama to give up saving “dinosaur industries” like the car makers in Detroit. “Accept that many of these industries are going to fail.” Elkington advised that funding has to be turned toward green industries that face a capacity building challenge as they are looked to as a big part of economic and environmental solutions.

“We’ve got to invest money,” he said. “Don’t just squander it on bailing sick companies out.”

At this point much of the audience may have been distracted by thoughts of unemployment lines and stocking up on canned goods to survive the coming depression. But John did offer a glimpse of silver lining in the dark clouds he had painted over his picture of the future. After expressing his sincere hope that his prophecy of doom proves imprecise, he latched onto the conference’s symbol: the Chinese word for crisis that combines the characters meaning “danger” and “opportunity.”

Looking into a sea of faces wearing expressions of fear and uncertainty he announced: “There is no more exciting time than the one we are headed into.”

All I can add is, “For your safety and the safety of others, please remain seated until the roller coaster comes to a complete stop.”

I’m on my way home from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship’s International Corporate Citizenship Conference that was held earlier this week in San Francisco. I can’t remember the last time I just attended a conference – and this time was no different. I participated on three panels as well as in the Center’s Board meeting that followed the conference.

The theme of the conference was “Danger and Opportunity” – fairly fitting for the current economic environment and the evolution of the CSR and Sustainability field. Several threads emerged at the conference, at least for me.

First, the profession is maturing. The panels I participated on covered the key competencies required to excel as a CSR and Sustainability leader; the Business Value Drivers (Growth, Return on Capital, Risk Management and Management Quality); and the measurable link between CSR and Reputation. These topics can only be taken on once people move off the business case (a topic beaten to death over the years).

Secondly, there is new tension in the system. The maturity of the profession, the economic environment and even the tarnished view of U.S. corporations on the global stage have changed the tone of the debate. John Elkington came to the conference to participate in an evening Q&A with Brad Googins. If you don’t know who these guys are – you should – do a little web surfing to find out. John is the best I know at predicting the future in these spaces. He delivered a very frank portrayal that left people sober and optimistic at the same time.

The final morning keynote was delivered by Dev Patnaik, author of Wired to Care. Dev was energized and entertaining. His message was so simple, it made you wonder why we didn’t all “get it” already. His depiction of empathic innovation and creativity put a unique lens on the work we do everyday.

But the question on people’s minds during the breaks and in the hallways was consistent – “What is the galvanizing message?” Some thought it was a rude economic awakening, disruptive business cycles and utter ambiguity for the foreseeable future. Others described renewed focus, business integration and the opportunity for leadership. Some seemed to be torn between being tentative or being optimistic. If you were there, I’d be interested in what you heard. I know what I heard was different than what some of my colleagues picked up.

I thought some of the research the Center conducted on metrics, competencies and reputation was useful and applicable in the marketplace immediately. I walked away impatient as ever, reinforced in my position that CSR and Sustainability are all about better business, higher impact, more engaged employees and long term results.<–>

A competency is a personal characteristic that leads to outstanding performance in a job. The Boston College Center has been working in partnership with the Hay Group, an HR consultancy and leader in developing competency models, to apply this common business technique to the corporate citizenship function.  When moderator Chris Pinney asked us how many of us had created our own job and written our own job description, more than half of the people in the room raised their hands. In this “pre-paradigmatic” field, the job of a corporate citizenship manager or director is still being shaped.

A competency model is one step towards professionalizing the role of a corporate citizenship leader. What are the requirements of this person? What are the goals and performance metrics? How does one know if they are doing a good job? Panelists Dave Stangis, VP of CSR at the Campbell’s Soup Company, and Bo Miller, Director of Corporate Citizenship and Global Contributions at Dow Chemical, have navigated their way through these unchartered waters for several years.

Telling the audience that building trusting relationships is the key to making any progress, and that they never expect to receive the credit for their great efforts, Stangis and Miller exhibit some of the key competencies the Center and the Hay group have identified. This new breed of leaders must not only be knowledgeable about social issues and stakeholders, they must also intimately understand the business, and communicate through business speak. They also need to be passionate about their goals and optimistic that their company will improve. Corporate citizenship is no place for the faint of heart or the impatient, as audience members commented on the high degree of resiliency they have developed and their ability to be motivated by small “wins.”

Competence for corporate citizenship requires many of the characteristics needed to lead change. The leaders in this session have defined the unique space of corporate citizenship through their experience and in so doing inspire leaders in all roles to develop competencies that will lead to positive change in 21^st century companies.

Their research was based on 135 interviews with executives from the areas of CSR, sustainability, human resources, environment, strategy, finance and investor relations in 20 companies from 11 industries. This culminated in a report from the Boston College Center, “How Virtue Creates Value for Business and Society”.

Sheila Bonini from McKinsey summarized the key findings for session attendees:

1. Environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities, or corporate citizenship, create value along four areas valued by the market: growth, return on capital, risk management and management quality.
2. Investors and CFOs believe ESG creates value but they are not fully taking it into account.
3. Many companies create real value from ESG activities, but most do not measure that value and even fewer communicate that value.
4. There is a real opportunity for ESG professionals to fill this gap and filling this gap will enable organizations to understand where these activities fit.

Of course, the trick is coming up with the metrics to provide the numbers that demonstrate the value. Kevin Thompson of IBM, one of the participating companies, noted that there are100-plus surveys that CSR practitioners fill out each year to be evaluated and ranked on their CSR programs. “Not one survey asks about value creation,” he said. “They all ask about risk management.” This puts the company in a defensive position when telling about its activities.

Thompson reminded us of the lessons from the campaign trail that Clinton and Obama campaign adviser David Wilhelm passed on at the conference’s opening dinner. Wilhelm told us that CSR practitioners, like candidates, must always be the aggressor to avoid being put in a defensive position that leads to losing. In light of that advice Thompson asked, “If you’ve got five or six people in your CSR program, do you want two of them always playing defense?”

Bonini acknowledged that “it is a huge challenge trying to put metrics around social value. But huge progress can be made by doing it.” CSR professionals are the most positive of those surveyed that ESG adds to shareholder value. But according to Bonini and the Center’s Phil Mirvis, most say they are not able to put a number on it.

While the search for appropriate metrics can be daunting, we heard some impressive numbers that surfaced in the company interviews and demonstrated that ESG or CSR activities created measurable value in those areas valued by the market.

In terms of growth, Novo Nordisk’s work in China on diabetes education led to a 70 percent market share in that emerging market.

Dow demonstrated impressive returns on capital from its efforts to cut energy consumption. Spending $1 billion over 10 years to realize that cut in consumption brought savings of $7 billion in 5 years.

Intel’s Community Needs Assessment program contributed to risk management by engaging local stakeholders in a responsive way. This pro-active approach helped avoid zoning delays and fines, and helped the company with tax incentives.

At IBM, the Corporate Service Corps enhanced management quality through development of emerging leaders who were sent to emerging markets to help with economic growth. This led to improved global leadership skills, cultural intelligence, global awareness, and employee retention and commitment to IBM.

These are just some examples of the value that McKinsey and the Center found is created through the practices of these and other companies. Check out the full report on the Center web site for more details on creating metrics and the value they demonstrate, along with the 10 best practices necessary to create strategic and financially valuable ESG activities.

That was the question three panelists – Microsoft’s Dan Bross, FedEx’s Rose Jackson Flenorl, and Ahold USA’s Harriet Hentges – were asked to answer.

All three, along with moderator Rick Martella of ARAMARK, are members of the Boston College Center’s Advisory Board. As such, they were asked to share the trends they are seeing, the new opportunities for citizenship to contribute to corporate health and reputation, and some of the tangible actions they’ve been taking to maximize the contribution that CSR can make to business.

Rick Martella started by distinguishing between what he called “baseline stress” and the new stress caused by changes over the last six months, including the global economic crisis, the confidence and trust crisis, the new Administration, and the perceived environmental crisis.

He then outlined some of the major themes he and the other panel members have been hearing over the past six months:

1. The stress is real, almost everyone in every industry is feeling it. Our interpretation, reaction and how we behave are now the questions at hand
2. Citizenship professionals are overwhelmingly creating opportunities out of adversity. In particular, the new Administration’s call to responsibility and civic engagement present a new opportunity to engage millions of our corporate citizens in service, and imminent environmental policy changes may accelerate our opportunity to move programs and commitments forward.
3. It is time to be on the offense, not defense. This is a time of innovation and re-invention, so look forward, not back.
4. Citizenship professionals are shifting how they act and behave. We need to think more like business “operators.” Now is the time to show up differently.
5. It is more important than ever to deeply know and understand our core businesses; only then can we offer citizenship as part of a solution to targeted business challenges.
6. Everyone is looking for best practices and tangible advice; this conference is an opportunity to share and find them.

Dan Bross echoed that the stress is real, but had an important piece of advice: Get over it! All the other parts of the business are being asked how they achieve value, and to prove that they are efficient and focused. Corporate citizenship is under no more pressure than other departments to answer these questions, he said, and it is an exhilarating time to be a corporate citizenship change agent. “We all have more opportunities to embed corporate citizenship in our companies than ever before, and we should take advantage of them.” He advised to do so without being emotion or hysterical, acknowledging that “for many of us, these issues are emotional and personal. But if you personalize the operations side of corporate citizenship, it could be diminished.”

Rose Flenorl agreed that this is a time of opportunity, saying that she has seen much more collaboration between internal departments. She also talked about the importance of story telling, saying that “the better I tell my story, especially to employees, the easier my job is.” FedEx is making the storytelling easier with an enhanced web site and citizenship blog, allowing more and more people in the field to tell the company story as well.

Harriet Hentges said that her greatest stress is trying to move fast enough to harness all of the enthusiasm for corporate citizenship in her company. As a food retailer, she explained, healthy living is a core focus for Ahold. One of her challenges in this down economy is working with food banks to help keep the hungry fed. Another focus is on keeping food healthy and sustainable. In her case, she said, working with employees is the best corporate citizenship opportunity she has. “If we seed the idea with the employees, they will get energized and run with it. We’re missing an opportunity if we don’t do that.”

All of the panelists agreed that one of the greatest stresses is deciding where to put their energies. “Most of us are in the business of connecting dots – and that takes a lot of time,” said Dan Bross. Nobody wants to ask their boss, “What do you want me to stop doing,” so it is critical that you decide where to put your efforts, and what to pull back from. If there are programs that aren’t getting the outcome you want, you may need to pull the plug on them. If you’re spread too thin and asking people in the field to do too much, you may need to pull back.

Here is Rick’s summary of the observations surfaced by audience and panel members:

• This is fertile ground for tough decisions… MAKE THEM!
• Invite (or be invited) to “build a bigger table” for discussions within our organizations.
• Connect priorities across businesses and functions and look for efficiencies.
• Get over the stress shock…you are not the only one and aren’t being discriminated against
• Use emotion wisely and don’t wear it on your sleeve.
• Be a change agent but don’t try and be a “super person”; talk the language of concrete, relevant wins for your audience; be a solutions broker.
• Constantly redefine strategies and programs – it’s a moving and ever-evolving target.
• Define and adapt your strategies so that outside influences don’t!
• Story tell. Build a consistent story to tell internally and externally around strategy and outcomes.
• Adjust your storytelling as needed given current conditions.
• Use vernacular that resonates within your company and specific audiences.
• Engagement and collaboration with your businesses around design and execution is more important now than ever.

The Center’s research on the Stages of Corporate Citizenship was unveiled at last year’s conference, but the need for it has not diminished. During this year’s session, moderators Brad Googins and Phil Mirvis of the Boston College Center, along with presenters Theresa Fay-Bustillos of Levi Strauss and Hamlin Metzger of Best Buy, were able to meet my insatiable need for an end goal with their logical and easy-to-follow framework.  Phil Mirvis made two points within the first five minutes that, in my mind, grounded the entire session:

The Stages are important for benchmarking:

• Uniform, precise measurement of a company’s citizenship progress is difficult. But rudimentary metrics such as the Stages are key to starting a measurement process as well as tracking one’s journey.
• The Center’s benchmarking matrix fits conveniently onto a single PowerPoint slide, and can be color-coded and redesigned to liven up any annual Board meeting. It could even double as a CSR bingo sheet or “Name that Corporate Citizenship Stage” board game!

The Stages portend future citizenship goals and aspirations:

• Knowing what you’ve already accomplished is not only key to planning your next steps, but to ensuring that each future stage is not a disparate event.
• Similar to benchmarking, having a good sense of which stage your company is in will allow you to compare yourself to other companies. It’s not a contest, but we can all learn from each other, knowing how/when/to what/with what your peers have moved forward with their corporate citizenship strategy.

Most companies, as Best Buy’s Hamlin Metzger pointed out, will never be entirely in one stage or another, and no two companies’ view on which CSR activities belong in which stage will be the same. This will be true even within companies. As citizenship strategies begin to permeate entire firms, companies may find that each division is in a different stage, or how one business unit perceives their position in the stages may be different than how another business unit perceives it. But it is this broad and adaptable framework for the stages that make it so valuable: it respects the uniqueness of each company while providing everyone with a single method for tracing progress.

And this is what I and my like-minded ends-driven peers need. Achieving good corporate citizenship is a long and often difficult journey; having an end, a benchmark, and conclusion to gather and reflect around – even if it is only an intermediate one – can provide the kind of closure and satisfaction my species craves, along with an appreciation for importance of process as I plan the next steps forward.

Rose Flenorl, FedEx’s manager of social responsibility, accepted the award for the company during a ceremony at the 2009 International Corporate Citizenship conference in San Francisco.

The FedEx video demonstrated how the company uses its transportation and logistical skills to meet the needs of communities around the world. The video powerfully demonstrated the value of moving vital relief supplies into communities following humanitarian crisis such as the Chengdu earthquake. The film also featured community groups and a broad range of FedEx employees working together with the common goal of making a positive impact during difficult situations.

“FedEx is absolutely delighted and honored to receive the distinguished film festival award from the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship,” said FedEx’s Flenorl, “As a corporate citizen, we are committed to building stronger communities through volunteerism, corporate donations, charitable shipping and sponsorships with major charities. Our story is a salute to the amazing work of nonprofit organizations and our FedEx team members who are making an incredible impact in the lives of people worldwide.”

This is the first year of the Boston College film festival, and we were all surprised not only by the number of entries – there were 25 – but by the 15,000 votes cast in the competition. Judging from the comments accompanying many of the votes, a large number were cast by enthusiastic employees wanting to support their company. (Voting was limited to one vote per IP address.) It quickly became clear that the film festival provided a great opportunity for companies to heighten employee engagement in the company’s citizenship efforts by showcasing their entries on their intranets and other internal communication methods. Judging by the comments, however, it was apparent that a good percentage of the voters were cast by “average citizens” who came across the film festival through a variety of paths and were simply gratified to see companies’ good works in their communities. As one person wrote, “This is a very wonderful thing you are doing. Many corporations have relationships with their communities, and this goes a long way in getting them recognized. I think all should be winners, if they are helping.”

“The success of the film festival proves there is an eager audience for the positive stories companies have to tell,” said Bradley K. Googins, executive director of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. “FedEx is truly a leader in strategically matching core business competencies with a strong commitment to support communities around the world.”

Companies that entered their work in the film festival were: Accenture, Aetna, Allstate, Amway, AT&T, Bank of America, Best Buy, Campbell Soup Company, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Exxon Mobil, FedEx, Hitachi, Intel, Mars North America, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Pitney Bowes, PricewaterhouseCoopers, UPS, Western Union and Whirlpool.

The videos will remain on the web site of the Boston College Center and can be viewed at www.BCCorporateCitizenship.org/filmfestival. Each video is between 1 and 3 minutes in length and captures how each company is having a positive impact, typically in partnership with nonprofits, customers and employees, on social and environmental challenges.

Saul believes that the key to good measurement is a tight focus on the outcomes you want to achieve, not the activities you think will achieve them.

Don’t measure how many employee volunteer hours your company has logged over the past year – you need to measure how many employees consider themselves actively engaged with the company, or see themselves aligned with its values.

Don’t measure how many customers know about your environmental commitments – measure how much brand loyalty has increased.

Set the outcomes you want to achieve first, then work backwards to identify measurements, then identify strategies that will move those measurements in a positive direction. It’s an engaging strategy that allows citizenship professionals to focus on the goals that their colleagues, and bosses, can understand.

Saul’s system doesn’t make measurement easy – you’ll still have to figure out just what kinds of data will help you measure outcomes, how to balance quantitative vs. qualitative data, how to craft a compelling narrative for your strategy, and so on. But if your goal is to tie citizenship to business value, the focus on specified outcomes is a excellent place to start.

So what do you think? Do you find these measurement tips helpful? Can you offer any others?