Earlier this month, we completed our 5th Aspen Business & Society Summit, a meetup of 190 key executives in influential corporations and those who advise corporations, advocate for better business practices, and teach business. The Summit is about what’s holding us back, and what is needed to leverage the unique capabilities of companies in service of the public good.

After all, let’s remember, “We, the People” offer corporations the license to operate.

What sticks with me after two weeks’ time?

More Clarity and Urgency, Less Hand Wringing

With more capital managed by private family offices, a session on “Catalytic Capital” explored new ways for philanthropy or mission-focused investors to fill financing gaps and help companies bring sustainable innovations to market. The energy was infectious. So was the sense of urgency. Those with the need for capital to advance innovative solutions from within industry were able to hear from those with capital to deploy to these same ends.

Everyone laughed when a final question got pretty detailed; “What were the terms a specific investor required to make a deal?”—more Shark Tank than Ideas Fest. Where’s Mark Cuban when we need him?

A new feature of the gathering was a series of “Action Labs” organized around the specific problem of one organization, attended by 10 to 12 individuals with common interests or insights to share. The one I attended featured a technology breakthrough for soil conservation and renewal—but required opening the minds of farmers committed to established solutions sold by public (ag-focused schools) and private (pesticide manufacturers) interests that benefit from the status quo.

The participants in the lab offered experience in different geographies and ecosystems, from forestry to fisheries, that labor under similar challenges, and understanding of the work that lies ahead. We hope this Lab, among others, continue to make progress in the year ahead.

Focus on Local Impacts and Local Conditions

Political realities have reoriented sustainability and impact away from grand technocratic commitments and towards impacts that regular people can see and feel. Complex global disclosure regimes have fallen out of favor, and traditional geopolitical alliances and trade partnerships are fracturing.

US government pressure also strains sustainability functions in business and finance. Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO, described how the rise of AI has energized local voices demanding to be heard on the impact of AI on jobs and on natural resources, including energy and water. The trust recession causes citizens to retreat to the people and institutions closest to them, and for leaders to rediscover the value of putting local concerns and solutions front and center.

In a session entitled “The Business Risks of a Declining American Dream,” a participant noted, “’National’ is not a place.” Whether the dialogue was about affordability, rebuilding connections and trust, or economic opportunity, the importance of elevating local concerns and priorities, and harnessing local insight, came through.

Measuring Progress

If the axiom about executives managing only what they measure were true, we would proceed with caution on the use of AI—a domain where the costs and externalities are abundant and not yet understood. Measurement of the consequences of carbon on the ecosystem is useful; the state of play is less clear when it comes to human systems at risk.

In this Summit post by Witold Henisz, our colleague from The Wharton School asks, what was left unsaid? I think one of the things left unsaid is that an ROI approach to advancing sustainable innovation doesn’t translate easily, or cleanly, to the promise of AI or the need for investment in employees, families, students and communities.

At the Summit, we dig into the reality of what what’s holding us back, but also the reasons for hope. With CSOs under pressure, we keep hearing the call for more rigor, more measurables, and the translation of sustainability into the language of finance.

Yet the human costs of technology or automating jobs are hard to measure, or may not make sense or be understood at the level of the firm. The ROI of doing the right thing (and what IS the right thing?) requires clarity of purpose and values, but also a longer time horizon and systemic understanding of the problem.

An even greater challenge is that workers and communities have less agency under the current rules of the game. The benefits go to the capitalists, the shareholders—the costs are borne by labor. And the gap between labor and others is widening.

It’s a bit like farmers’ use of pesticides. The cost of known knowns is easier to justify than the uncertainty of new approaches that require a profound cultural shift. We need a different playbook to make progress on the human side of the system. The tools of finance are insufficient, and perhaps always have been. Measuring ROI will not suffice.

How Leaders Build Conviction

Which brings us back to our focus on leadership, and specifically to boards of directors. On the first day of the Summit, Maggie Schear of BCG BrightHouse led a session that focused on how to build conviction in the boardroom to invest in sustainability when short-term costs cloud the path forward. Leading through transformation at scale requires a different leadership mindset, as Linda Hill reminds us in her new book, Genius at Scale, and in this podcast.

Numbers alone don’t do it—stories are needed to unpack culture built around shared beliefs and values. Examples of “employee-first” thinking remind us of what is possible: Delta, which emerged from bankruptcy with a generous profit-sharing plan open to every employee, and became the most profitable and admired airline; or Southwest, which by putting employees first, enjoyed years of extraordinary growth and customer satisfaction, or Costco’s distinctive culture and employee-centric commitments.

These are common sense examples, but we need some new stories to open up the horizon, as AI crowds our vision.

The final session, a memorable closing interview by Ellen McGirt of Design Observer with Eric Ries on his new book, Incorruptible, took us back to first principles: how to design the corporation to keep founder intentions secure against the short-term pressures from both public and private capital markets. In his book, Eric shares the story of FedMart, the uber-popular warehouse-style retailer I remember well from growing up in San Diego. The company was bought out and ultimately lost its way. The founder learned from experience, and went on to build Costco.

There were many moments that captured the potential of business to write new stories. The Summit brought people together who are living these stories. It left us with the sense that our challenges are not insurmountable, and that the solutions will be built together.

This blog post was originally published on LinkedIn. Follow Judy Samuelson for more insights on business and society.