ROOF

The roof of a residential house is what protects it from inclement conditions, thereby preventing it from damage, helping it last longer and allowing people to inhabit it. A roof provides shelter to family members, thus making them feel safe from weather conditions such as storms, rain, hail, snow or heavy sun. Without a roof, it would be difficult for people to inhabit the house and develop a life there, as the need for shelter is part of our nature and innate to our animal instinct for survival. This is not only true for humans; most species on earth look for a refuge where they can survive and protect themselves from predators and weather conditions.

The House Model invites users to think of the Roof of your organization as the area that provides the company with the organizational health to endure and remain not only operational but also competitive in the market. On the one hand, the Roof area refers to sustainability; on the other hand, it addresses the strategic goals the company pursues in order to succeed in the market. In this way, the Roof area of the House Model is broken down into two sections – Sustain-Ability and the Attic. Goals are located in the Attic, the space between the ceiling and the roof at the top of the house.

The attic of a residential house is a difficult place to reach – commonly only accessible through a pull-down staircase – and is a place where so many things are stored that it is sometimes difficult to find what you’re looking for when you need it.

The Attic as depicted in the House Model refers to the strategic goals the company is committed to achieving. One reason we chose the Attic as the perfect space to depict the organization’s goals is because our experience in consulting has shown us that it is exceedingly difficult to find written statements depicting organizational goals that the company as a whole agrees upon and is committed to achieving – especially in small and mid-size companies.

The other reason for placing goals in the Attic at the top of the house is t o highlight the relevance of this organizational component. Goals can be thought of as small rungs on the organizational ladder that allow the company to reach higher accomplishments. Goals set the direction for moving forward; they’re the organizational compass.

We define goals as written declarations of important objectives the organization wants to target and achieve. Goals represent the dashboard that allows the organization to figure out whether it is making progress in its strategy or not. After designing the strategy and the proper business model, the next step is to set the goals that will allow the company to move forward in one specific direction in alignment with the mission statement.

Something that is sustainable is something that can bear, provide support to, and allow other things to endure.

The roof of a residential house performs exactly that function. A roof has to be strong enough to provide people shelter from climate conditions, and has to endure without yielding. In the House Model analogy, a solid organizational Roof allows a company to endure in the market.

In organizational settings, the term sustainability generally refers to the company’s capacity to coexist and maintain balance with the organizational environment. Organizations don’t exist in a vacuum; there is a context in which they operate and are immersed, and a context or environment where they interact and live. Like nature, this organizational environment has its own laws for operation. The company’s actions impact other actors and the context, and vice versa. Therefore, organizational sustainability refers to the company’s capacity to endure and remain operational in the market.

The House Model proposes that in order for an organization to be sustainable, the organizational Roof must be composed of four fundamental components representing four different types of sustainability – social, environmental, economic and technological.