Use in the Classroom

Implementing TBL signifies that an organisation is considering profit, people, and planet in its initiatives. From theory to practice, the main question is how organisations can implement TBL. HE teachers can explain the use and applicability of this tool in a classroom setting by the using the following steps:

• Describe the Purpose/Problem Definition
  • General Overview: In the start, organisational leadership needs to describe the rationale for adopting TBL practices, what problem(s) needs to be addressed. Basically, the leadership needs to re-examine what is meant by ‘success’ — both at its most granular level and on a corporate scale. The type of business and related product and service offering, main revenue drivers will help in clarifying why and how to proceed in implementing TBL. The problem definition should be addressed/defined from the point of view of the overall financial position of the organisation, well-being of the workforce, and to what extent is the organisation contributing to the environment and wider community.
  • Classroom Activity: At the beginning of the class lecture, a brief, ten-minute overview of the TBL topic restates the lecture’s objectives and summarises the concept of the TBL. The teacher may choose to pose questions to the students, e.g. “What is Sustainability?” and “What are the three Ps?”. Students may choose to volunteer some answers. Next, by using the above understanding, teachers need to create groups of 4 to 5 students each.
    • As an activity, all groups should be given a list of organisations to choose one from – organisations that are specifically related to environmental, social, and economic issues.
    • The purpose of this classroom activity is for the students to have a group discussion within themselves to understand and define the problem as to why a specific organisation opted to be a TBL based organisation. What made them a TBL organisation? What aspect(s) of TBL is covered by the organisation and how? In this part of the group-based activity, each student in the group can study about the organisation by exploring their website, the web in general, etc. This discussion can be completed in 30 minutes by each group.
• Implement the Tool (Gathering your Actions)
  • General Overview: Once the purpose and problem are clearly comprehended, the next stage is to identify the type of actions that relate to each of the 3Ps. For example, here are some examples of TBL in action:

    Implementing TBL at its core will ensure sync and strengthening of each of the Ps. Also, actions from one ‘P’ may overlap with the actions of the other ‘P’, e.g., reductions in the operating costs can be better for the environment, as is risk management.

  • Classroom Activity: Once the students have explored the organisation’s website or the web in general, studied and understood their move to TBL, then using the examples like ones presented in Figure 4, students can start discussing and drafting points related to the organisation. Once the students have drafted points, the HE teacher can ask each group to present their findings to the whole class. The students in the group can share (his/her) idea in order to make their argument make sense and flow. They can then decide who will lead in presenting the overall findings. Presentation time for each group can be 10 mins. The students can also present their findings by identifying potential positive and negative impacts of general infrastructure with respect to 3Ps.

    	People	Planet	Price
    Positive Impact	e.g., increased accessibility, safety, and well-being	e.g., removal of contaminants, provides wildlife habitat	e.g., economic growth, creating jobs, paying taxes
    Negative Impact	e.g., visually unpleasant, dislocation of homes/businesses	e.g., increased surplus and flooding, loss of natural habitat	e.g., higher user fees, increased capital expenditure

• Collect Data after Tool Implementation
  • General Overview: Once leadership implements TBL practices in its true sense, they can consider evaluating each department’s positioning, resulting in collecting data (either via survey, focus groups, or interviews) to understand the outcomes of implementing TBL.
  • Classroom Activity: Once all the groups in the classroom have presented their findings related to their chosen organisation, the teacher can collate the main points presented by each group, either by creating a self-constructed questionnaire or merely extract main points from their presentation of the tool.
• Analyse the Data and Reflect on the Outcome
  • General Overview: Once data is collected, leadership will need to re-evaluate the overall organisational environment i.e., reflecting on and understanding the implications of impact of TBL framework on financial (profit/prosperity), social (people/human capital), and environmental (planet/sustainability) dimension.
  • Classroom Activity: After collating main points from the group presentations, it is up to the teacher to either provide feedback to each group after they have presented, or let all the groups to present, collate the mains points and then provide to each group in the end. In either way, the teacher will need to provide feedback on how the students performed in the activity. In this last part of the activity, the teacher and students can have a debate. Depending on the number of groups developed in the first stage, the teacher can choose to put some groups on one side to discuss on the positives of TBL, whereas other groups can debate on the negatives. Each group can try to sway the opposing side to their point of view. The whole purpose of this group-based activity is to help understand and realise the overall value of TBL, reasons why organisations choose to implement TBL practices, and it is implemented by organisational leaders.

To conclude, a TBL framework works best when embraced as a new method of operating i.e., adopted, implemented, diffused, and essentially practiced in reality, rather than merely brought in as an add-on or a plugged-in patch.